Anthony Rexford Wiredu, the state attorney prosecuting the police officer at the centre of the soda cocaine saga, DSP Gifty Mawuenyega Tehoda, yesterday, asked an Accra Human Rights Court that the suspected cocaine dealer, Nana Ama Martins, was on her way out of the country.
Mr Wiredu told the court presided over by Justice Kofi Essel Mensah that he had information that Nana Ama was seen at the Ghana-La Cote d�Ivoire border trying to escape to the French speaking country and therefore told the court not to grant DSP Tehoda bail as demanded by her counsel.
This was after Justice Mensah had observed that the charge sheet on which DSP Tehoda was standing trial for abetment and stealing of cocaine was defective.
The judge, after listening to submissions by the lawyers of the accused, E.A. Vordoagu and Oliver K.A. Dzeble, as well as the state attorney, Mr Wiredu, said that the prosecution contradicted itself on the charge sheet and granted the police officer a GH�100,000 bail with two sureties.
The contradictions had occurred from the statement of the offence and the particulars of offence on the charge sheet.
Under the statement of offence, DSP Tehoda was charged with �abetment of crime, to wit stealing of cocaine� under section 20(1) of Act 29/60 and section 56(a) of the PNDCL 236 (Narcotic Drugs (control, Enforcement and Sanctions Act 1990).
However, there was a contradiction in the breakdown of the offence under the particulars of offence which said DSP Tehoda abetted one Nana Ama Martins�s families and other individuals to �commit a crime to wit loss of cocaine exhibit.�
The judge admitted that the case, though simple, had become a topical issue for which he had to handle it with care. He indicated that the law was clear that cocaine suspects should not be granted bail but in that instance, the police woman had not been charged with a narcotic offence.
Justice Mensah observed that the statement of offence bore no reference to stealing of cocaine for which she should be accused of abetment.
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