Justice has finally been served - DSP Tehoda

“Finally justice had been served,” Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Gifty Mawuenya Tehoda who was embattled in the cocaine changed to baking soda case in 2011 stated after a court ordered for her reinstatement.

“I am very grateful to God for sustaining me and the family for the past five years.

“I am very grateful to my family and friends who supported me. I would not have come this far without my family.” DSP Tehoda told journalists after a Human Rights Court in Accra on Friday ordered her reinstatement into the Ghana Police Service.

When asked how she had coped with life for the past five years, DSP Tehoda said: “It has not been easy at all. I was taking care of my two kids who are at the university and Senior High school respectively.

“I feel very happy about the ruling because that was what I asked the court. I hope the representative of the Inspector General Police was in court and I hope they will enforce the court’s order,” she told journalists.

She said her colleagues were now at the rank of Chief Superintendent of Police.

A Human Rights Court ordered her reinstatement into the Ghana Police Service.

This was after the Court had held that DSP Tehoda was wrongfully dismissed from the Ghana Police Service. It, therefore, ordered that all her entitlements, allowances and promotions due her for the past five years be accorded.

The court accordingly awarded GHS10,000.00 as general damages and GHS8,000.00 as cost against the Ghana Police Service, and the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI).

According to the court, the dismissal of DSP Tehoda constituted a breach of natural justices, right to be heard and fair trial during a service enquiry instituted by the Police.

The court further asked the BNI to pay GHS5,000.00 as damages to the DSP Tehoda for wrongful detention.

In March this year this year, the court presided over by Justice Gifty Agyei-Addo granted an application by DSP Tehoda’s lawyers to adopt proceedings including addresses before Justice Kofi Essel Mensah who had been dismissed from the Judicial Service.

In September 2011, Nana Ama Martins was arrested over alleged large quantities of cocaine which later changed into baking soda during a trial.

DSP Tehoda was named in the missing cocaine case; subsequently, she was interdicted by the Ghana Police Service.

She was then tried by an Accra Circuit Court for her involvement however at the end of the trial she was acquitted and discharged.

DSP Tehoda then proceeded to the Human Rights Court seeking reliefs for wrongful dismissal from the Ghana Police Service.

She also prayed the court for an order for her reinstatement, compensations as well as general damages suffered over the period