This Isn�t The Cocaine

The Police Officer at the Police Forensic Laboratory who initially tested the missing cocaine at the centre of a probe committee, David Agyemang Agyin, yesterday testified that the substance that was presented to him to examine on August 29, 2008 weighed 1,430 grams and was totally different from what was contained in the current package.

According to him, even without official testing, there was a visible indication that the package had been tampered with and the substance changed.

Mr. Agyin, who made the declaration when he was asked by the chairman of the committee set up by the Chief Justice to investigate the cocaine-turned-baking soda saga, opened the exhibit in the presence of the panel and the public and commented on it, stating that the first substance which was cocaine was smoother than what was in the envelope now.

He also pointed out that it appeared part of the substance had been scooped while the envelope had been changed but the committee had, in its previous sitting, been told the envelope was changed at the court after the seal was broken.

Later, when Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, the judge who sat on the case appeared, he defended himself, saying there was no basis for anybody to involve him in the case as he did exactly what a judge was supposed to do during the trial.

The judge blamed the police officers handling the case. He said since the cocaine case was brought to court, the police were never serious and appeared lackadaisical in their attitude towards prosecuting the case.

The trial judge said his decision to allow the exhibit to go for re-testing was firmly based on a precedent by Justice Georgina Wood�s ruling on the Jackon Vs KLM case in which the Court of Appeal ruled that merely because the defendant did not demand verification of an exhibit tendered in evidence did not preclude him from doing so during trial.

Justice Kyei Baffour reiterated that the fact that the substance had also been with the police for three years made him to perceive no wrong with the counsel�s plea that the exhibit should be re-tested.

The trial judge had been accused by the State Attorney, Stella Arhin, who in her testimony, said she was scolded by the trial judge when she attempted to challenge the re-testing of the exhibit.

When Justice Kyei Baffour appeared before the four-member committee of enquiry, he conceded that the exhibit was kept in a cabinet within his chamber.

He was quick to add that the attitude of the police concerning the case made him to be firm on Nana Ama Martin�s case and even failed to grant her bail, adding that it was the High Court that granted the suspect bail, and therefore there was no basis for anybody to quote him as the one who granted the suspect bail.

According to him, when the exhibit was first brought to court, they all inspected it before the seal was broken by the police investigator before it was put back into the envelope.

He however stated that the allegation by Ms Arhin was not correct as he only got angry with her in the cause of the ruling when he realized that Ms Arhin had wanted to lie to the court and not at the time he re-quested the re-testing of the exhibit.

The State Attorney had told the court that Mr. Adarkwa Yiadom, who tested the exhibit at the Ghana Standards Authority, had confirmed to her that he wanted to testify in chambers when he appeared before the court.

�However, when Mr. Adarkwa Yiadom appeared before court and was asked to confirm her statement, he denied it and said he preferred to testify before the open court. This was what made me angry with the State Attorney and not when she attempted to challenge the re-testing of the substance.

�So if I had agreed to have had the case heard in chambers, the issue that the cocaine had turned into sodium bicarbonate or baking soda would have been buried,� he stated.

When the trial judge was asked whether he had access to the keys, he said he did not have any access to the keys as the key to the cabinet was in the possession of the court clerk, Daniel Nyatsidzi.

However, he noted that he knew very well that the court clerk who had access to the keys was somebody who would never do such a thing.

The counsel of Nana Ama Martin, Kwabla Senanu, made the fourth appearance before the committee after Ms Arhin and the head of Narcotics Unit, DSP Kofi Adjei Tuadzra.

Counsel Senanu insisted that the police and the media had always wanted it to appear that the police was innocent but he totally agreed with whatever the trial judge testified today.

�My failure of not asking for the exhibit to be retested on the 27th does not mean I erred nor have any hidden agenda. It was when I got home that it came to me that I should ask for the re-testing because the substance did not smell like a cocaine when the seal was broken on the 27th.

�I am saying I agree with the trial judge because when I raised the objection, the police made it clear to me that it would create a very big problem at the police headquarters. So since that objection, there had always been problems between the police and myself and especially the State Attorney has had serious grudges with me,� he added.

Source: Stella Danso Addai