General News of Monday, 5 January 2015
Source: Citifmonline.com
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has advised Ghanaians to disregard allegations being circulated on social media by some ‘faceless persons’ purporting to be army officials regarding the Nayele cocaine saga.
In a post on her Facebook page on Sunday, Ms Tetteh said some “nameless and faceless persons within the military… writing under pseudonyms on social media platforms” are claiming they have evidence to prove some government officials indeed assisted Nayele Ametefe to transport 12.5 kilograms of cocaine to the United Kingdom (UK).
The evidence, according to these ‘faceless persons’ were gleaned from “checks having been made with the Military.”
According to the Minister however, such posts are “unverifiable allegations” only aimed at tarnishing the image of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and the government.
She said the baseless claims are being circulated on social media to “cast doubt on the information I made available to the public when being interviewed by Suhuyini on Radio Gold.”
The Minister stressed that the information she provided to the general public was based on the report she received from Ghana’s High Commissioner in London.
Hannah Tetteh said contrary to the rumours that some government officials from the Ghana Embassy were at the airport to receive Ms Ametefe, “I [Hannah Tetteh] was informed that staff of the Embassy working with the office of the Defence attaché in our Embassy had been at the airport to receive a delegation from the Ministry of Defence.”
“I have no reason to doubt the veracity of the report I received from the High Commissioner,” she added.
She served notice to the general public that the Ghana Armed Forces is a very professional organization “which is also very professional in the way it conducts its public affairs and therefore any vague, unsubstantiated allegations purporting to come from them should be disregarded.”
She continued saying, “I am glad that at the IMANI anniversary lectures and also on his Twitter feed, the British High Commissioner to Ghana confirmed the Lady was not in possession of a Diplomatic passport on arrival in the UK, and I can confirm that she does not possess any Diplomatic passport under any of the pseudonyms that have been associated with her in various media reports.”
Nayele Ametefe alias Ruby Appiah was arrested last year at the Heathrow Airport in the UK for trafficking 12.5 kilograms of cocaine.
Subsequently, it was revealed that she used the VVIP section at the Kotoka International Airport to travel; a revelation which led to the arrest of about 12 persons.
There were also media reports that some government officials were assisting Ms Ametefe but the Minister in a radio interview discounted those reports. Ms Ametefe has pleaded guilty in a UK court and is expected to be sentenced on Monday, January 5, 2015.