How President Mills Averted a Strange Cocaine Case and Saved COP Kofi Boakye

Nathan Kofi Boakye, the Ghana Police Service's Commissioner of Police (COP), left his position after reaching the obligatory retirement age of 60. The COP had provided the Police Administration with successful and devoted service for more than thirty years. After receiving his first degree in Chemistry from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), he immediately enlisted in the Service.

The youthful Kofi Boakye developed in the Service from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, rising to crucial positions and roles that dealt not only with the numerous hoodlums that were sprouting and spreading around the nation, but also the kingpins that were giving birth to such phenomenon. Beginning with the 2000 elections, he worked to secure complete calm and the flawless sanctity of the vote that ended Rawlings' 19-year reign over Ghanaian politics as Director of Operations for the Ghana Police Service.

Kofi Boakye made a lot of enemies because of his passion to clean up the system. Many self-described millionaires, the majority of whom in actuality derived their fortune from illegal drug trafficking, ritual killings, and other associated diabolical crimes, turned their attention to the stoic Kofi Boakye. It's thought that influential members of society, including politicians, high-ranking officials, the security command, and even the clergy, encouraged such behavior. For many of Kofi Boakye's friends and associates, his four-year expulsion from the Police Service from 2008 to 2012 was a deliberate move to remove him from the path of those involved in the drug trade who were being harmed by the COP's campaign against the trade and other social problems.

In 2006, Ghana was shaken by the infamous MV Benjamin cocaine incident, which Kofi Boakye was implicated in, according to the pro-NPP journal The Statesman. The Statesman claims that an audio recording made at the home of the renowned police officer revealed Kofi Boakye's participation in the cocaine scandal. Even though Kofi Boakye's voice was barely audible, the Georgina Wood commission of inquiry, which was established to look into the cocaine deal, found Kofi Boakye responsible because those voices were recorded in his home. All the people involved in the cocaine haul acknowledged having their voices on the recording.

The Georgina Wood Commission therefore recommended that Kofi Boakye and four other people be prosecuted; however, while Kofi Boakye's accomplices were all given prison sentences of varying lengths, he was left hanging. In 2008, he lost his position as Director of Operations at the Ghana Police Headquarters. In 2012, the then-President John Evans Atta called him back to his position after four years of complete silence over his issue.

Kofi Boakye was appointed to lead the Police Services' Education Department following his reinstatement. However, taking into consideration the Georgina Wood report's 2006 recommendations, which documented Kofi Boakye's abuse of authority, corruption, professional misconduct, and poor service, President Mills ordered a service investigation into the conduct of Kofi Boakye. About the Georgina Wood report, it was the last thing anyone could hear. Later it was established that the recommendations were not warranted.

The MV Benjamin cocaine scandal gripped Ghanaian society in 2006 to the point where authorities, such as the security detail, who were supposed to look into the cocaine matter independently, turned out to be unsavory and active complicits. When some of the cocaine packets hidden at the Police CID headquarters went missing, it came as a bit of a surprise. The extent to which pharmaceuticals were making individuals instantly rich without much effort had won over many converts. The drug-induced billionaires or lords therefore turned against everyone who attempted to stand in their path.

When someone is given the death penalty for their head, you become a prominent target. However, the cocaine epidemic was also tearing apart the basic foundation of Ghanaian society, especially among the youth. So how could it be stopped in its tracks when the very parties mandated to battle the evil were also benefiting from drug trafficking and other illegal activities? walked in Kofi Boakye. Who's Kofi? He was the eager, young police officer who quickly advanced through the ranks. By 2000, Kofi Boakye, who was then the assistant commissioner of police (ACP), was in charge of a specialized Task Force that dealt with drug use, armed robberies, and other ghetto-like lifestyles and residents. The offenders' and their agents' networks would soon begin to mention the ACP.

Armed robbery communities emerged first, and subsequently drug dealing communities took their lead. Kofi Boakye was targeted and every effort was made to tarnish his great career rather than honoring him and praising him. It was entirely political, yet the same political structure really preserved the police officer's career. Kofi's detractors believed they had him in the crosshairs of one of the largest cocaine haul scandals. It was all about the controversial MV Benjamin ship, which in 2006, under President John Agyekum Kufuor, brought 77 packages of cocaine to Ghanaian beaches. Asem Darkey, also referred to as the limping man, was the man at the epicenter of the cocaine storm.

After hiding since 2006, he was apprehended at the Korle Bu teaching hospital in 2012. The Accra Fast Track High Court sentenced him to 22 years in prison. One of the four guys who possessed the substantial cocaine display was Asem Darkey. The other four were Chief Engineer Cui Xian, one Sheriff, Captain Hwak of Adede 2/MV Benjamin, and Kwak Seong, called Killer. The other accomplices from Ghana, Issah Abass, Kwabena Acheampong, Mohammed Moro, and Kwabena Amaning, alias Tagor, received varying prison sentences.