A Ghanaian man accused of importing cocaine said Police bribed him with food in an attempt to find out what drug he had swallowed.

Oshuman Shehu, 31, told Supreme Court yesterday that while he was being held at the hospital by Police officers, to excrete ?foreign objects? found in his stomach, he was not given any food or water the entire time.

Earlier in the trial the court heard that he was given only an intravenous drip during his three day stint at the hospital.

Shehu said that Police told him that they would give him food if he told them what drug he was carrying in his stomach.

He said that he told them he was not carrying a drug, but that he was carrying gold dust.

He has denied importing and possessing 344.1 grammes of free base cocaine.

The court heard earlier in the trial that while at hospital Shehu excreted 45 red pellets containing cocaine.

He believed gold dust was inside the pellets, which he was smuggling to pay off a debt in New York.

Shehu said yesterday that while at the hospital he asked the Police officers if his wife in New York could be notified, but he said they never called her during the three days there.

He added that he also inquired about a lawyer but was not permitted to see one until he was at the Hamilton Police station, which was four days after being detained.

Shehu broke into tears when he told the court that he and his wife, after receiving threats from the man he owed money to, decided that his trip to Bermuda would be the last time he would smuggle gold.

He told the court that he felt faint and the room started spinning when Det. Con. Leroy Mathurin told him that the contents of the pellets had tested positive for drugs.

Shehu testified earlier that he was sent to Bermuda by Jamaican jeweller, Sean Brown, to deliver 45 pellets of gold dust to Det. Con. Devon Richardson at the Hamilton Police Station and the pellets were for a man named ?Roger?.

Shehu said: ?I will go to my grave knowing it was gold dust.?

He began crying again and said he had been remanded at Westgate Correctional Facility for nine months and he has not been able to talk to his family about his ordeal because his culture has strong social stigmas against drugs.

?They kill you in Africa if you have drugs,? he said. On cross examination from Crown counsel Oonagh Vaucrossen, Shehu said he had been swallowing gold wrapped in condoms since he was a little boy and that it was common practice in Ghana.

Ms Vaucrossen questioned whether or not Shehu was stealing.

He replied: ?It is survival.?

When asked if he was meant to receive anything in exchange for the pellets, Shehu said that he was promised his debt would be erased.

Last Friday the jury heard a tape recording from Shehu?s answering machine of Sean Brown threatening him if he did not pay his $10,000 debt.

Yesterday Ms Vaucrossen pointed out that the recording does not tell Shehu what is in the pellets or where to pick them up from.

Shehu said that he had talked to Mr. Brown before he left the message on his machine and that he had received all his ?instructions? then.

Ms Vaucrossen asked: ?How are you able to tell if a pellet contains gold dust??

Shehu replied: ?You can?t tell until you open it.?

He told the court that he swallowed the pellets filled with gold dust for Mr. Brown so Mr. Brown could avoid paying taxes on them ? not because he thought they were illegal.

The trial was halted early yesterday due to one of the jury members being taken to the hospital because she was experiencing chest pains.

The trial is expected to continue today.