Senior Police Officers responsible for alleged swapping of cocaine

Accra, Jan. 11, GNA - The Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) has recommended that Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Kofi Adzei-Tuadzra, Head of Narcotics Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service and DSP Mrs Gifty Mawunyegah Tehoda, Deputy Head of the Commercial Crimes Unit, should be held responsible for their roles in the disappearance of the exhibit which was kept for three years at the Police Headquarters.
The BNI said "The exhibit itself was kept in the office of the Head of the Narcotics Unit. It was released for court by the officer and was later returned to him. In effect, he was the ultimate custodian of the exhibit.

" While DSP Tehoda's conduct was obstructive of the investigation being conducted by her colleagues, the responsibility for the security of the exhibit was that of DSP Kofi Adzei-Tuadzra".
These were contained in an Interim Report of the BNI on the swapping of cocaine that turned into sodium bicarbonate (baking powder) as released in Accra by the Ministry of Information and copied to the Ghana News Agency.
The report was submitted to President John Evans Atta Mills last week.
The President had asked the BNI to investigate the circumstances in which the cocaine turned into baking powder when it was retested at the Ghana Standards Authority during the trial of the accused person, Nana Ama Martins, by an Accra Circuit Court.
The report of a fact-finding committee set up by the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Wood, on the same issue has also been released to the public.
The BNI report said approximately one kilogramme [1,020 kg] of cocaine presented as exhibit in the trial of Nana Ama Martins turned out to be sodium bicarbonate upon retesting by the Ghana Standards Authority. The substance had earlier undergone a field test at the Police Headquarters and a more elaborate test at the Police Crime Laboratory in 2008.
It said both tests had reported the substance as positive for cocaine, and the BNI was directed to investigate the circumstances leading to the change of the substance and identify the culprits.
The report said Nana Martins was arrested on August 22, 2008 in Accra with a substance suspected to be cocaine. The case, however, was never brought to trial until she was granted bail on September 11, 2009, against the relevant laws.
She absconded but was rearrested on July 21, 2011 after which the case was reactivated for the trial to begin on August 25, 2011 at the Circuit Court One, Cocoa Affairs Courts, presided over by Mr Eric Kyei Baffuor.
The report said the investigation established strong circumstantial evidence that the cocaine was swapped with the active assistance of and facilitation by DSP Tehoda, who had nothing to do with the investigation under review, but took the suspect out of cells on nine occasions under the ruse of "further investigations" and spent, on the average, two hours with the suspect in her office on each occasion.
It said the exhibit which was at all times kept in the office of the Head of the Narcotics Unit of the Police Service and not in a designated exhibit room was handled by three heads of the Police Narcotics Unit and two investigators from August 22, 2008 to September 27, 2011 , a period of three years when it was first tendered in evidence.
The report said Police Lance Corporal Thomas Anyekase visually identified and confirmed the exhibit on September 28, 2011 as the same one he tendered on September 27, 2011, suggesting that it had not changed overnight. It is noted that L/Cpl Anyekase was a policeman, not a court official.
It said long before the substance was tendered in court, Mr Kwabla Senanu, the defence counsel, had insisted to the prosecutor, Ms Stella Arhin, that the exhibit was not cocaine. The exhibit stayed in the court premises from September 27-29, 2011 when it was sent for re-testing during which it turned negative for cocaine.
The report said any change in the substance at the court would have happened over the two nights, and the investigation found no evidence of any visible change in the substance over those two days and nights as testified to by Lance Corporal Anyekase, Constable Joseph Owusu, and the prosecutor, Ms Arhin, both Constable Owusu and Ms Arhin endorsed the new sample for re-testing.
It said there was evidence that agents of the accused tried unsuccessfully to influence the court officials with an amount of GH¢50,000, a clear indication of the extent to which the accused and her cohorts were willing to go to secure her escape from the law.
The report said it was in this connection that the conduct of DSP Tehoda fitted into the desperate schemes of the accused to influence the course of justice and swapping the substance was one sure way of achieving that goal.
She held nine meetings without the permission of the investigators and tried to deceive her subordinates in charge of the custody of the accused by indicating in the station diary that she needed the accused for further investigation when she had nothing to do with the matter.
"Clearly, her motives were not honourable, " the report added.
The report said some of the nine meetings she had with the accused in her office were attended by a friend and agent (name withheld) of the accused who confessed having ran errands for the accused including making attempts to bribe the judge and his officials, and an uncle (name withheld) of the accused who, with the agent earlier referred to, was instrumental in selling off property of the accused at Gbawe, in an effort to raise money to pay legal fees and bribe officials connected with the case.
It said Mr Senanu, defence counsel on three occasions, took his legal fees from DSP Tehoda in her office.
"Clearly then, DSP Tehoda's keen interest in the freedom of Nana Martins provides enough motive for her to do whatever she could to achieve that freedom for her", the report indicated.