In The Matter Of Cocaine Turning Into Washing Soda…

As Police Clears Air

Intelligence Desk Report

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you”, Matthew 5:10-12 The above quotation from the Good Book is what has undoubtedly vindicated President John Evans Atta Mills and his ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) government on their promise and determination to fight the hard drug trade that has years plunged the good name of Ghana into global diplomatic quagmire. As a devotee to this solemn promise, the Inspector-General of Ghana Police Service (IGP), Mr. Paul Tawiah Quaye and his administration have not been spared by adherents of the forbidden trade in their effort to curb the drug menace, with persistent attack on them.

Contrary to media reports and political commentators’ pronouncements, on the recent court ruling that revealed that an exhibit of earlier-certified cocaine, lodged in the court’s custody had mysteriously turned into sodium carbonate, seeking to create rather wrong impression as if the Police Service should be held accountable for the sudden development in the botched trial, investigations conducted by The Informer reveal otherwise.

Many opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) commentators and business magnates who seem to have problem with the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Paul Tawiah Quaye, in his avowed position to purge the nation of crime and make the drug trade a thing of the past, as he collaborates effectively with other security agencies like the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), have decided to use the incident, to once to attack the Chief Constable.

The IGP, having proven very difficult to be manipulated, the NPP commentators in collaboration with their media allies without subjecting the issues to critical diagnosis, have jumped into conclusion, blaming the Paul Tawiah Quaye for the mishap.

Working hard to frustrate and derail the President’s commitment to fighting the drug menace, as he vows, in all his State of the Nation Addresses to Parliament, and sometimes even at public gatherings, the NPP, its commentators and serial callers since day of the news of the court ruling, have subjected the Mills’s government to unfriendly attack, pointing accusing fingers at the IGP and his administration, when the story wasn’t so.

From this paper’s independent investigations, which was later confirmed by the Director of the Criminal and Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, DCOP Prosper Agblor, in his press conference on Wednesday 14th December 2011, the indictment rather rests with the trial Judge, Mr. Eric Kyei Baffour. The findings question Kyei-Baffuor’s court’s jurisprudence for the sudden change of proceedings, which unbelievably led to the discharge of the prime suspect, Nana Ama Martin.

Setting the records straight in respect of the judgment delivered by the honorable court, the CID indicated that the cocaine which today has become a washing soda or sodium carbonate was not under the custody of the police as it is being portrayed in some media reports.

According to the ruling, the cocaine was tendered in, as evidence by the police on the 27th September, 2011, during one of the trials with no objection from the Defence Counsel, and was handed over to the court for safe-keeping, while the case was adjourned to 28th of September, 2011; only for the court to resume trial, for the defence counsel to raise an objection that the exhibit was not cocaine, and demand that the substance be re-examined.

Even tough the prosecution objected to the application, the trial judge, under whose custody the exhibit was kept after the last trial, overruled the objection and went ahead to order a re-testing of the exhibit as requested by the defence counsel, knowing what their grand plan was.

The exhibit was entrusted into the care of the court registrar, Mr. Yusif Seidu, only for the court to be told that the exhibit, originally tested and certified to be cocaine, is no longer but a sodium carbonate or washing soda, leading to the strange discharge of the suspect on the day of the ruling. From the above accounts, what can this be then than a grand scheme to derail the government’s effort of fighting the drug trade, as well as to tarnish the image of the police administration and for that matter the IGP.

Eve before the BNI and the Police could conduct investigations into the matter on the orders of the Vice President, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, we want Ghanaians to judge for themselves, whether the NPP has any locus standia to accuse government and to attack the IGP like they are doing.

Without fear of contradiction, we are calling on the security agencies, to, without wasting anytime, pick the trial Judge, Eric Kyei Baffour, the court registrar and as well as the gentleman from the Ghana Standards Board, since the circumstances leading to the sudden change of the exhibit rest in their bosom. We shall continue to support the IGP and his men as well as NARCOB in their drive to cleanse the nation of drug barons, and no prank employed by the NPP and its media collaborators against government, and for that matter, the no-nonsense IGP, Paul Tawiah Quaye will see the day of light.