Passport halts Abodam trial

Kwaw Kese and Happy Charpel

The issue of the passport of Happy Charpel, an ex-girlfriend of Ghana's renowned hip-life artiste, Emmanuel Botchway popularly known as Kwaw Kese, has become critical in determining her claims that she returned to the country more than once when she and Abodam were lovers in 2008.

This was after Ms Naa Nortey, counsel for Botchway also known as Abodam, told the Accra High Court where he is being tried on charges of defrauding his ex-lover Charpel, that she wanted photocopies of relevant sections of the passport of the complainant to settle the issue of when she arrived in the country and left and how many times she visited the country last year.

Abodam has pleaded not guilty to defrauding Charpel and maintained that he only received £1000 from her and not £7000 as she had alleged; and has been granted a GH¢15,000 bail.

The case had to be adjourned to June 1, 2009 by Justice F. Abanga because the photocopier machines around the court area could not be used due to power outage and the prosecution hesitated to call the next witness to give evidence as counsel for Abodam wanted Charpel to tender photocopies of her passport.   

Charpel has alleged that Botchway had defrauded her of £7,000 on January 4 2009, the very day she arrived; but made a u-turn on the last adjourned date and said it was rather the day after, when grilled by Ms Nortey on the fact that she herself claimed she arrived around 11.00 pm that night and could not have given him the amount at that time.

The complainant who is reportedly married to an elderly man in London told the court that the hip-life artiste had sex with her in a hotel at Spintex Road when she arrived in the country from London, where she is a supervisor at a company called Tescon.

Charpel who was supposed to travel back to London had indicated her preparedness to stay till the final determination of the case while Abodam was accompanied by some hip-life artists including Reggie Rockstone, the acclaimed godfather of hip-life.

On the last hearing date, the complainant was asked under cross-examination by counsel for the musician what she meant when she said she and Abodam were “very good lovers,” to which she responded that she and Abodam were indeed lovers at that time.

She told the court presided over by Justice F. Abanga that she arrived in the country on a Ghana International Airlines (GIA) jet on January 4, 2009 and was picked up by the musician and his friends to the Torica Lodge, off the Spintex Road where she stayed for a month and three days.

Counsel asked her whether she came back into the country after staying for three months last year, to which she explained that she indeed returned but could not remember the exact date, noting that she came and left in a hurry.

When she was asked how much she had on her on arrival in January 2009, she stated that she carried £7,380 but failed to declare the cash amount at the airport.

Consequently, counsel for the accused person suggested she was not being truthful to the court, to which she denied.

In addition, she told the court some friends in the United Kingdom (UK) sent her money to cater for herself after she gave her ex-lover the £7,000 to use in developing a piece of land she had acquired at Prampram; after Ms Nortey asked her how she was able to pay her hotel bills of GH¢35 day for more than a month during her stay in Ghana.

The complainant told the court that she did not have any dependants and that the building was at its foundation level when she gave Abodam the money.

By Fidelia Achama