The Circuit Court Judge who presided over the cocaine-turned-soda-powder case, Mr Eric Kyei Baffour, is being transferred from Accra Circuit Court 1 to another court (location withheld), according to The Finder newspaper.
The source who spoke to the paper on condition of anonymity indicated that the Judge was only being transferred for security reasons and not for any omission on his part.
The source added that Mr Kyei-Baffour would attend to partly heard cases; that is, cases he had started hearing before the transfer.
Mr Kyei-Baffour, who was on his annual leave in September 20 11 when he was called back to attend to cases in his court, has since resumed his leave.
The Finder gathered that a new judge will now take over from him.
People with cases in the court whom The Finder spoke to on the alleged transfer of Kyei-Baffour were surprised and referred to the Judge as "a friend and a competent man who handled cases brought to �him with tact".
Justice Kyei Baffour came to public attention when he acquitted and discharged a suspect in a narcotics case, Nana Ama Martins, after a cocaine exhibit upon retesting, was revealed to be as sodium bicarbonate.
The judgment created controversies in the Ghana Police Service and the Judicial Service which led to the Vice-President ordering an investigation into the case.
Nana Martins was acquitted and discharged by the Accra Circuit Court for possessing cocaine in the trial which was aborted after the court had upheld a submission of 'no case' made by counsel for the accused.
The court was puzzled as to how a substance alleged to be cocaine which was seized from the accused person, confirmed by the police to be cocaine after testing and weighing 1,020 grammes later turned out to be sodium bi-carbonate after the court had ordered another test to be conducted by the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA).
After more than three years into the trial, the court called on the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to, as a matter of urgency, institute a service inquiry to determine who might have tampered or changed the drug alleged to have been found on the accused and to prescribe the necessary sanctions.
The substance had been in the cus�tody of the police and the court ruled that if the allegation was true, it was a serious indictment on efforts by the law enforcement agencies to curtail the menace in the country.
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