The accused are Ebenezer Mensah, 24, Francis Atiso, 25, Alfred
Assuman, 23, Alex Abraham Amoh, 23, Emmanuel Otoo, 28, and Richard Ato
Darko, 25.
The rest are Robert Amoah, 22, Mustapha Kadri, 28, Francis
Awortwi, 24, Daniel Boateng, 23, Emmanuel Affum, 24, Samuel Asafuah,
28 and Thomas Agyei, 29. Their pleas were not taken and they are to re-appear on June 28 this year. Prosecuting, Police Inspector Theodore Alhassan, said the accused persons were casual labourers working with the Ghana Dock Labour
Company at the Takoradi Port.
He said on June 17 this year, M/V VERA “D”, a foreign cargo
vessel, arrived at the Takoradi Port to load and discharge containers.
Inspector Alhassan said Mensah and Atiso had a hint that the
vessel would be leaving for Europe and planned to stowaway on it.
He said they managed to find their way into the harbour by using
a hired canoe from New Takoradi and sneaked onto the vessel with the
aid of a bamboo stick and hid in one of the hatches.
He said Assuamn, Amoh, Otoo, Darko, Amoah, Awortwi, Boateng and
Affum also managed to outwit security at the Port at different times,
sneaked into the vessel and hid themselves in the hatch.
Inspector Alhassan said Kadri who was lawfully booked to work on
the vessel, refused to go out after the close of work and hid himself
in the hatch as well.
He said Assuah and Agyei hid themselves in a life boat.
Inspector Alhassan said the crew of the vessel detected an
unusual noise in the hatches and the accused persons were found in
their hideouts during a search.
He said the accused were arrested and handed over to the Police.
Inspector Alhassan said investigations conducted on the 13
stowaways revealed that Darko and Kadri had earlier been bonded by the
Takoradi Circuit Court “B” to be of good behaviour for 12 months for a
similar offence.
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