A 40-year-old Ghanaian man, Joshua Opoku has been jailed in Dubai for trafficking a narcotic substance believed to be cannabis also known as weed.
Mr. Opoku was said to have been arrested at an airport in Dubai after the Gulf country’s officials found the substance on him.
According to the brother of the convict, Yaw Amponsah, his brother did not know there was such a substance on him.
He claimed that the substance was implanted on him unknowingly and Ghanaian Custom Officers at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) allowed him to pass after taking One Hundred dollars from him.
Narrating how Opoku was arrested, Mr. Amponsah told crimecheckghana.org that his brother was introduced to a Dubai-based Ghanaian known as Prince by a friend.
This he said was after his brother was promised a job in the Gulf State.
He continued that his brother did not know Prince but were only in touch via phone.
Mr. Amponsah indicated that Prince asked Opoku to bring along with him some local food items, which he obliged.
The distraught man said when it was due for Opoku to go aboard the Dubai-bound airplane, Prince requested him to receive one last item from his brother for him.
That particular item, according to Mr. Amponsah was already in a wrapped container and when Opoku wanted to know its content, Prince told him it was hair food.
Mr. Amponsah said security officers at the Dubai airport arrested him when they found out that the content of the container was weed.
“Opoku had visited South Africa and wanted to go to Dubai for greener pastures. Opoku should have been arrested in Ghana but Customs officers at the KIA took $100 from him. So I think the officers saw the substance on him but they allowed him to pass,” Mr. Amponsah alleged.
Mr. Amponsah furthered that when Opoku was arrested, he mentioned that Prince asked him to bring him the substance.
He said the Dubai authorities did not go after Prince but went ahead to imprison his brother for ten years.
“When we managed to contact Prince, he denied knowledge of the substance. The Dubai authorities did not go after him which is why they have jailed my brother. Opoku is an innocent man and he would never perpetrate such a crime,” he said.
Mr. Amponsah appealed to Ghanaian authorities to help serve his brother justice and enable him get his freedom.
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