Amoateng’s ‘Paddy’ Hits Town

Benjamin Mensah Otinkorang a.k.a. Nii Okai adjei, who was alleged to have partnered the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP’s) former Member of Parliament (MP) for Nkoranza North, Mr. Eric Amoateng to dare the United States’ security, with heroin weighing 136pounds and a street value said to be hovering around $6.0 million, arrived home last Sunday (September 14, 2008) morning.

“Nii Okai adjei” who was alleged to have spent a little time in Canada after dropping off the hook at the US legal system, sent messages around home weeks before his arrival in Ghana that God had smiled to him; and that by that grace, he was out of the US prison walls.

When the message of his impending return was peddled here at home, some taunted that it was a hoax and a figment of the imagination of Nii Adjei’s relatives.

Others said the text message must have been a ‘cooked’ one from alcohol-induced minds, with the argument that the US legal system was not like Ghana’s, where people caught red-handed with narcotic drugs could walk free.

Eric Amoateng first dishonoured himself by desecrating Ghana’s Parliament as a legislator on his arrest in the US. The US Federal Law ‘slapped’ him with a ten-year jail term for attempting to evade the federal security network with the forbidden drug.

It would be recalled, that on November 12, 2005, Eric Amoateng and one “Nii Okai Adjei,” all Ghanaians, were picked by US under-cover security personnel, whilst poking ice off seven crates of heroin they had lodged in a Staten Island Storage facility, after successfully shipping the cargo from Ghana.

Honourable Eric Amoateng, then 55, sought permission from the Speaker, Rt. Honourable Ebenezer Begyina-Sekyi Hughes, to attend to his “personal business” in the US from 9th to 24th November, 2005.

Amoateng and his paddy, “Nii Adjei,” were on Monday, November 14th 2005 arraigned before a New York Court on charges of conspiracy with intent to distribute heroin in the US.

The former Ghanaian legislator was subsequently jailed by the court, which found him guilty of the offence after a trial. Information on ‘Nii Okai Adjei’s’ fate remained vague.

Porters who spoke to the Enquirer on condition of anonymity, revealed that the botched trip was the first joint operation of the two new-found friends of the same political stable and that Nii Adjei was more conversant with the terrains of Holland and Germany, where he had frequently traveled. It was the trip with his ‘big-friend’ that became his undoing.

The porters swore that the “goods” which were loaded into a 40-footer container hosted by Benjamin’s home, among other things, was lodged deep in the bush and on a farm behind the Sangonaa-creek, near the Coco beach.

They revealed that it took them a couple of nights to stuff pottery crates, as they often worked in the silence of the nights, for a free. They claim though that they never knew the nature of the material they stuffed the poetry with, but were informed only when the news of the arrest hit town.

According to the porters, during the period, Eric Amoateng became a regular visitor to the Okai-home at the Coco Beach area. The two were alleged to have traveled also to some areas in the hinterland for ‘prayers’ before the ‘great’ journey, a source revealed.

The Enquiere had learned on the spot that Nii Okai Adjei was born Benjamin Mensah Otinkorang, but had to change his name to “Nii Okai adjei”, to enable him obtain and use a Canadian passport.

According to our source, Mr Ben Mensah Otinkorang, formerly of 50 TRUDELLE ST., A.P.T. No.. 202, SCAR-ONTARIO, CANADA, and two others, Nii Boye and Ataa Kwei had a brush with the Canadian authorities in the early 90s, and they were declared persona non-grata, in that country.

He currently has a house on a one-acre plot (Address withheld) along the Lagoon Road, Coco Beach Area, near Nungua, where he has returned and is trying to adjust himself among his unsuspecting neighbours. He was once married to a Canadian lady by name, Sabina smith, who had left him days after the two had a misunderstanding at a Beach-party at the Coco Beach.

Akosua, who was with him as a fiancée before the ill-fated trip to the US had faithfully kept hope alive till Ben’s arrival last Sunday.