January 26, 2012 (Page 3 Lead)
The interdicted Deputy Head of the Commercial Crimes Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, DSP Mrs Gifty Mawuenyegah Tehoda, who is at the centre of the cocaine-turn-sodium carbonate saga, has applied for bail at the Human Rights Court.
Mrs Tehoda, who was remanded by the Accra Circuit Court on one count of abetment of stealing of cocaine on January 17, 2012 was not present at the Human Rights Court.
The presiding judge, Mr Justice U. P. Dery, drew counsel’s attention to some technical errors on the docket and accordingly advised counsel to rectify them.
Following that development, the court, could not hear her case due to the technical errors which needed to be rectified by counsel for Mrs Tehoda, Mr Oliver Dzeble.
Details of the bail application were not made available. A new date is yet to be fixed for the hearing of the bail application.
Mrs Tehoda on January 17, 2012 pleaded not guilty to one count of abetment of stealing of cocaine and was remanded by the Circuit Court to reappear on February 6, 2012.
The court declined bail application by counsel for the accused.
The accused person was handed over to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) by the police on December 29, 2011 on suspicious dealings with Nana Ama Martins after she (Nana Martins) had been re-arrested in July 2011.
Nana Martins was acquitted and discharged by the Accra Circuit Court of the charge of possessing cocaine in the trial which was aborted after the court had upheld a submission of ‘no case’ made by her counsel.
Following that, the Vice-President, Mr John Mahama, tasked the BNI to investigate the incident.
The investigation led to the arrest of the accused, who was handed over for her role in the swapping of the cocaine.
Although, her unit was not investigating Nana Martins for any offence, DSP Mrs Tehoda allegedly went for the suspect on different occasions from CID cells and took her to her office and also arranged a lawyer for her.
The trial circuit court had, in September last year, received the alleged cocaine, weighing 1,020 grammes, as exhibit after it had been tested by the Police Forensic Laboratory.
A day after that, counsel for Nana Martins prayed that the substance be retested because it was not cocaine, as alleged by the police report. The re-testing was done and it turned out to be sodium carbonate.
It was during BNI investigations that it came to light that DSP Mrs Tehoda played a role in the swapping of the cocaine and also assisted Nana Martins to sell her house, all to facilitate the swapping.
The prosecution said investigations were still ongoing to identify the collaborators of DSP Mrs Tehoda, who was admitted to bail by the Human Rights High Court for the abuse of her constitutional rights.
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