Cocaine swap: Police interdicts top cop
The Police administration has interdicted DSP Gifty Mawuenyega Tehoda who is at the centre of the cocaine-turn-soda saga.
A statement from the Directorate of Public Affairs of the Police Service and signed by Acting Director, DSP Cephas Arthur, said Tehoda’s interdiction was in line with the Police Administration’s regulations.
Meanwhile, the police would want to assure the general public that it would cooperate with the relevant institutions and bodies to get to the bottom of the case, the statement added.
DSP Tehoda who is the Deputy Head of the Commercial Crimes Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department was Tuesday remanded by the Accra Circuit Court on one count of abetment of stealing of cocaine.
She pleaded not guilty and she will 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 consultational rights.
Source: Daily Graphic