Police Renders
CJ’s Report “Useless”
Says It Has No Merit
The Ghana Police Service has rendered Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood’s committee report on ever-simmering case of cocaine-turned-washing soda ‘useless’, shredded it into argumentative pieces and tossed same into intelligentsia dustbin, saying it lacks virtue and therefore, can’t stand the test of truth.
Addressing the press yesterday, Thursday 12th January, 2012, the Director-General of the Ghana Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP,) Prosper Agblor reiterated the earlier GPS position that the police, as far as that case was concerned, discharged their responsibility perfectly in terms of security and integrity of the exhibit, and that there was no objection by the defence counsel and the court (judge) when the exhibit was first tendered in evidence, and so therefore, objection raised subsequently by the suspect’s counsel was improper.
According to the CID Boss, the claims by the Chief Justice’s committee, and subsequent accusation of the police as being behind the bizarre circumstances, under which the exhibit became washing soda using the pungent smell as the committee’s basis is as unacceptable as it is unmeritorious; and sins against proven scientific truth.
“The Counsel was in the court on the September 27, 2011, when the exhibit was tendered in, and had the opportunity to examine the exhibit which was properly sealed. He examined it and accepted that it should be admitted in evidence. The seal was then broken in open court on the orders of the trial Judge”, Mr. Agblor pointed out.
He said, as soon as the seal was broken and the court took custody of the exhibit, the police had no dealings with it again as the chain of the custody had been broken; so the pungent smell used as the basis by the committee in its findings to accused the police is unfair.
“It is worth nothing that the committee used the absence of the pungent smell as a basis for their conclusion. Qualitative analysis and chemical testing of cocaine are scientific; smell is no conclusive test, and therefore, the pungent smell has no scientific basis and therefore cannot be supported by any law because, testing of cocaine is scientific but not by smell”, DCOP Prosper Agblor argued.
“The Defence counsel’s affirmation that it was not the best practice for the police to test the substance is untenable. The Police Forensic Science Laboratory is gazetted and accredited institution and has been testing narcotic substances for 40 years plus”, the police stated.
The police debunked assertion by the defence counsel, Mr. Kwamla Mawuenyagah Senanu that the investigator, L/CPL. Thomas Anyekese has told him that his request for the retesting will cause “tsunami tremor” at the Police Headquarters was not substantiated, so for the committee to rely on such a statement to pass judgment is completely ridiculous.
DCOP Prosper Agblor says, L/Cpl. Anyekese, who was alleged to have made this statement, has flatly denied ever having any interaction whatsoever with the defence counsel on that day, and so therefore, cannot fathom why the committee put up by the Chief Justice should rely on entirely unsubstantiated allegations as a fact to arrive at its findings.
“Surprisingly, the witness, L/Cpl. Anyekese, who was all the time available, was never confronted by the committee with this allegation for his reaction”, the CID director added.
The police also indicated that L/Cpl. Anyekese, as a trained detective, acted professionally, by refusing his signature because, the chain of custody had been broken when the Judge ordered that the seal of the exhibit be broken in court.
In addition to the above, the police have maintained that because the exhibit was kept by the court overnight unprotected, the police investigator was no more the substantive investigator in the case, and there was no need for him to append his signature.
The police observed that it is regrettable that the committee sympathetically considered the lapses by the officers of the court to be merely administration, and equally deflate the argument by the committee as regards to the length of time of the custody of the exhibit as immaterial, saying, the 48 hours during which the cocaine was in the custody of the court was more than enough for it to be swapped and stressed that what was important was the strict adherence to the chain of custody rule.
“At any rate, if one wants to swap an exhibit, one does not need three years to swap one slab of cocaine”, DCOP Prosper Agblor indicated, to utterly throw the CJ’s committee report into the dustbin.
However, the police insisted that, when exhibit “C” was tendered in court on September 27, 2011, that the seal was intact and indeed it was the responsibility of the trial Judge, the defence counsel and the prosecution to ensure beyond reasonable doubt that the seal was intact as suggested by the committee.
Nevertheless, the police administration in its press conference disagree totally with the BNI for indicting the Unit Commander, DSP/Mr. Kofi Adzei Tuadzra; that, as the unit head, he was responsible for the security of the exhibit, when they failed to clearly demonstrate and state his involvement in their interim report.
The claim that L/Cpl. Anyekese visually identified and confirmed the exhibit on 28/09/11 as the same one he tendered on 27/09/11 is incorrect.
Indeed, the Lance Corporal according the police administration, said that he could not vouch for the exhibit that was shown to him on 28/09/11 as the one he tendered on 27/09/11, and therefore, refused to have anything to do with it, so, the BNI’s suggestion that the exhibit did not changed overnight needs to be examined again.
