Swapped cocaine case: DSP Tehoda remanded in custody

The senior police officer at the centre of the swapping of a cocaine exhibit was on Tuesday remanded in prison custody by an Accra Circuit Court.

DSP Gifty Mawuenyegah Tehoda, Deputy Head of the Commercial Crimes Unit of the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID), was charged with abetment of crime and stealing cocaine.

The Court presided over by Mrs Audrey Kocuvie-Tay adjourned the case to February 6.

An Accra Human Rights Court presided over by Mr Justice Kofi Essel-Mensah last Thursday granted DSP Tehoda bail in the sum of GH¢50,000 with two sureties after it upheld an ex-parte motion filed by her counsel that her continued detention constituted an infringement on her human rights as guaranteed under the 1992 Constitution.

She was released on bail on Friday but re-arrested on Saturday.

The cocaine saga started when a Circuit Court trying a suspect, Nana Ama Martins, for possession of 1.029 kilogrames of cocaine realised that the substance had turned into baking soda when it was retested at the Ghana Standards Authority.

President John Evans Atta Mills asked the the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) to investigate the case while the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Wood, also set up a fact-finding committee on the matter.

The Chief Justice’s Committee found that the cocaine was swapped before it was tendered in evidence.

The report of the BNI said investigation established strong circumstantial evidence that the cocaine was swapped with the active assistance of, and facilitation by, DSP Tehoda.

The BNI recommended that DSP Kofi Adzei-Tuadzra, who had responsibility for the security of the cocaine and DSP Tehoda be held responsible for their roles in the disappearance of the exhibit which was kept for three years at the Police Headquarters.
Source: GNA