Director before tribunal for threatening to kill two seamen
Accra (Greater Accra) 29 Feb. 2000
The Managing Director of ESTOKO Fisheries Limited in Tema on Monday appeared before a circuit tribunal in Accra for allegedly posing as a Major in the Ghana Armed Forces and a worker at the Castle.
He also threatened to kill two of his employees with an AK 47 riffle. Enock Augustine Afeku pleaded not guilty to threatening, impersonating a public officer and possessing ammunition without authority.
He was granted 10 million cedis bail with one surety to reappear on April four.
The tribunal chaired by Mrs Elizabeth Anderson Yebuah heard that the complainants, Mr Noble A. Hetto and Mr Mamudu Issifu, are seamen, who were engaged to work in two fishing trawlers belonging to a South Korean in Las Palmas in 1997.
Chief Inspector Antwi said last year, the two trawlers, "Sea Lion 505" and "Sea Lion 508" sailed to Ghana. While in the country Afeku was introduced to the complainants by their employers as the local representative, who would from then work with them.
According to the prosecutor, Afeku then introduced himself to the two seamen as a Major in the Ghana Armed Forces, working at the Castle in addition to being the Managing Director of ESTOKO.
He said after some negotiations, Afeku accepted the responsibility to pay salaries in arrears from the Koreans to Hetto and Issifu, as well as re-engaging them.
He, therefore, advanced 400 dollars to Issifu, out of his standing arrears of 1,820 dollars, while Hetto's arrears remained at 940 dollars because he did not give him any money.
Chief Inspector Antwi said sometime in February, this year, when Hetto and Issifu went to Afeku's office at the Takoradi Harbour to demand their salaries, Afeku was alleged to have fired an AK 47 riffle into the air and later threatened to kill them.
The prosecutor said Afeku was also alleged to have pulled out a pistol at the Tema Fishing Harbour, where he threatened to kill the complainants, following persistent demand for their money.
He said a report was made to the Police, who arrested Afeku, but during interrogation he denied pulling a riffle to threaten the seamen.
Chief Inspector Antwi said Afeku claimed that the Castle issued him with a pistol in 1996, but he had handed it over to one Warrant Officer Class Two Ako of the Castle together with four rounds of ammunition four months ago.
He said when Afeku's house at Sakumono Estates was searched, five live rounds and 16 empty cartridges of nine-millimetre ammunition were found and he could not give any reason for possessing them.
GRi../