Veteran Ghanaian movie actress, Naomi Kumiwaa Banafo has opened up about how she landed in an American prison on drug trafficking charges.
According to the veteran actress, the incident happened in 2012 and it resulted in her spending more than a year in jail while making regular appearances in court until she was finally proven innocent and deported back to Ghana.
She said some men contacted her about a movie shoot in the USA and made travelling arrangements for her but during her trip, a parcel of cocaine was deposited in her luggage without her knowledge and it was not until airport security officers found the parcel after her luggage was searched that she found out.
She further revealed that the two men who were travelling with her checked out ahead of her bolted as soon as they realized that she had been arrested.
“They had checked out and were waiting on me from a distance. I was totally ignorant of what was going on and so I was taken to another room where my bag was searched. My bag was ripped apart and a brown parcel was discovered. They ripped the parcel and discovered the content was drugs. I even questioned if that was truly my luggage because I was shocked.
“The bag was truly mine. I was asked if I was travelling alone and said I was with some gentlemen. I gave out their description but they had bolted already,” Kumiwaa said.
The veteran actress told Oman Channel in an interview that she was finally found innocent after spending a year and two months in jail and was set free even though the prosecutor was pushing for a minimum jail term of five months for her.
She recounted the experience as a sad ordeal for herself and her family.
“I was really affected. It was a very sad moment for my family and children. One of my children collapsed upon hearing the story and was admitted at the hospital. It was a bad experience because people in there were committing suicide on a regular basis,” she said.
