Commissioner of Police (COP), Nathan Kofi Boakye retired from the Ghana Police Service upon the attainment of the mandatory 60-year retiring age. The COP had more than thirty years of successful and dedicated service to the Police Administration. He joined the Service right after his first degree in Chemistry from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
From the late 90’s to the early 2000’s, the young Kofi Boakye grew in the Service to assume key positions and roles that did not only dealt with many hoodlums that were emerging and spreading all over the country, but the kingpins that were birthing such phenomenon. He started with the conduct of the 2000 elections, where as Director of Operations of the Ghana Police Service, he worked to ensure total peace; and perfect sanctity of the election that ended Rawlings’ 19-year hold on Ghanaian politics.
Kofi Boakye’s zeal to sanitize the system earned him lots of enemies. The stoical Kofi Boakye became the target of many self-acclaimed billionaires, most of who in reality, had their wealth from nefarious drug trafficking, ritual murders and other related devilish activities. It’s believed such acts were patronized by some bigshots in the society, politicians, top civil servants, the security command and even the clergy. For many who were closed to Kofi Boakye, his four-year suspension from the Police Service from 2008 to 2012 was part of the grand scheme to get him out of the way of the drug related stakeholders, who were being affected by COP Kofi Boakye’s crusade against the trade and other ills of our society.
The pro-NPP newspaper, the Statesman had published that Kofi Boakye was complicit in the infamous MV Benjamin cocaine scandal that rocked Ghana in 2006. Kofi Boakye’s involvement in the cocaine scandal, according to the Statesman, was captured on an audio recorded at the residence of the renowned police officer. All the people who were connected to the cocaine haul admitted to their voices in the recording and although, Kofi Boakye’s was not particularly audible, the Georgina Wood commission of inquiry set up to probe the cocaine deal, found Kofi Boakye culpable because those voices were recorded in his house.
Kofi Boakye and four others were therefore recommended for prosecution by the Georgina Wood Commission and although all of the accomplices were sentenced to various forms of prison terms, that of Kofi Boakye was left hanging. He was relieved of his duty as the Director of Operations of the Ghana Police Headquarters in 2008. After total silence on his case for four years, then President, John Evans Atta recalled him back to post in 2012.
After his re-instatement, Kofi Boakye was assigned to head the Education Department of the Police Service. President Mills however, ordered for a service enquiry into the conduct of Kofi Boakye, taking into cognizance, the recommendations of the Georgina Wood report of 2006 that captured abuse of office, corruption, professional misconduct and unsatisfactory service against Kofi Boakye. That was the final word anyone could hear about the Georgina Wood report. It was later discovered that those recommendations were unfounded.
In 2006, the MV Benjamin cocaine case occupied the nerve centre of the Ghanaian society to the extent that people with the mandate like the security detail who were expected to investigate the cocaine matter themselves became unpleasant and active accomplices. It came a little surprise when part of the parcels of the cocaine hid at the head-office of the Police CID, got missing. Such was the level how hard drugs had won many converts because it was making people instant billionaires without much sweat. Therefore, anyone who tried to impede their way became an instant enemy to the drug-induced billionaires or lords.
You become a prime target where death penalty is pronounced on one’s head. But the cocaine menace was also destroying the very fabric of the Ghanaian society, particularly, the youth. So how could it be nipped-in the-bud, when the very stakeholders mandated to fight the evil were themselves enjoying the largesse from drug trafficking and others. Entered Kofi Boakye. Kofi who? He was the young Police Officer who rose through the ranks with glee and alacrity. By 2000, the then Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Kofi Boakye was head of a special Task Force that dealt with armed robbery, drugs and other ghetto-like lives and inhabitants. Soon, the ACP’s name would start circulating within the circles of the perpetrators and their agents.
First, was the armed robbery community, then the drug peddling communities followed suit. Instead of being rewarded and applauded, Kofi Boakye became the object of hit and target and every attempt was made to soil his beautiful career. It was pure political and indeed, it was same political system that saved the career of the police officer. Kofi’s haters thought they had gotten him nailed in one of the biggest cocaine haul scandals. It was all about the newsy MV Benjamin ship that carried 77 parcels of cocaine to Ghanaian shores in 2006 during the administration of President John Agyekum Kufuor. The man at the centre of the cocaine storm was one Asem Darkey, also known as the limping man.
He was arrested at the Korle Bu teaching hospital in 2012 after going into hiding since 2006. He was handed a 22-year jail sentence by an Accra Fast Track High Court. Asem Darkey was one of the four people who owned the massive cocaine exhibit. The others were one Sheriff, Captain Hwak of Adede 2/MV Benjamin, Chief Engineer Cui Xian and Kwak Seong, aka Killer. The other Ghanaian accomplices, Kwabena Amaning, alias Tagor; Issah Abass, Kwabena Acheampong and Mohammed Moro were jailed to various prison terms.
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