Man Behind Police Drug Planting Allegation Remanded

Patrick Asiedu, the Uber Driver who alleged some police officer planted illicit drugs in his car, has been remanded by a court.

He was arraigned before the court on January 19 and got remanded into police custody.

He will reappear before the court at the end of the month, the police communicated in a press release.

Background
Patrick Asiedu, the person behind a viral voice alleging the implantation of illicit drugs in a car and extortion by some police officer was arrested on Wednesday, January 18.

The police, after his arrest, said he is not a doctor as he claimed in the audio but an Uber driver.

In the nine minutes nineteen seconds audio, the suspect whose name has been confirmed as Patrick by the police said he was stopped on his way home on Friday, January 13 by four police officers who allegedly planted illicit drugs in his car while searching it and tried to extort GHc20,000 from him.

“Friday I was coming from Trasacco, so I wanted to use the motorway to hit the road so that I could get to my house at Kwashieman early. I met four policemen on the road, they asked me to pull over and I obeyed. They asked me to step out of the car so they searched me and my car and I obeyed.

“Seconds later, they called me back and questioned me about some weed and cocaine under my seat. I was surprised to see them in my car. I told them they didn’t belong to me and they asked me to pay GHc20,000 else they take me to the station and then to the Narcotics Commission”, he recounted.

He claimed the officers tried to compel him to touch the drugs, however, he refused and contacted a military relative of his.

He continued that upon the arrival of his brother and some military men, “my brother insisted that we do a fingerprint test so we proceeded to the Narcotics (Control Commission office) and conducted the test and we found that the fingerprints on the substances were that of the police officers.”

According to the narrative, the officers confessed to planting the drugs in his car to extort money.

“My brother handcuffed them and brought them to East Legon Police Station but the officers there transferred the case to Accra Central so now the case is with them.”

The Ghana Police Service in a statement dated January 17, following the circulation of the audio, said checks at the East Legon Police station and Accra Central police station did not show proof of such a complaint.

Additionally, it said efforts to reach Patrick had been unsuccessful.

In another statement on January 18, the police said they had reached and arrested him.

It said investigations showed that Patrick is an Uber driver and not a doctor as he claimed in the audio.

“The investigations show that the entire story narrated in the audio is false and a total fabrication by the suspect.”

It said the military intervention, the filing of the complaint at the police stations, and the visit to the Narcotics Commission are all a “figment of the suspect’s imagination”.

“Patrick Asiedu, the suspect, however, alleged that he had once witnessed a similar incident to what he described in the audio, happen to one of his passengers”, the statement said.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini