Chief Justice's Cocaine Committee Starts Sitting
The committee set up by the Chief Justice to investigate the circumstances under which 1,020 grammes of cocaine exhibit tendered in evidence at the Accra Circuit Court turned into washing soda began sitting at the Supreme Court Thursday, with the appearance of three policemen who testified as witnesses.
They were Lance Corporal Thomas Anyekase and Detective Constable Joseph Owusu, both investigators in the matter, and DSP Kofi Agyei-Tuadzra, the current Head of the Narcotics Unit at the CID Headquarters.
They were called to explain to the committee the various roles they played in the case involving Nana Ama Martins, the woman who was acquitted and discharged by the court on a charge of possession of cocaine.
Her acquittal and discharge generated controversy, leading to the setting up of the committee by the Chief Justice.
Lance Corporal Anyekase, formerly of the Narcotics Unit at the Police Headquarters but now stationed at the Pokuase Police Station, was the first to testify.
He told the committee that on August 28, 2008, personnel of the Panthers Unit of the CID Headquarters arrested Nana Ama Martins, sent her to the unit with one slab of a substance suspected to be cocaine in a handbag and the exhibit was wax sealed in the presence of the suspect and the arresting officers.
He said the suspect and the officers appended their signatures in approval of the substance retrieved from the suspect.
On the same day, the witnesss said, he forwarded the exhibit, together with a letter signed by the unit commander, to the Police Forensic Science Laboratory for analytical examination and report, adding that a sample taken for that purpose tested positive for cocaine, while the rest was resealed and handed over to him, which he then handed over to the unit commander for safekeeping.
He said the suspect was arraigned on September 4, 2008, during which she was remanded and the docket forwarded to the Attorney-General’s Department for advice. He said it was at that stage that he (witness) was transferred to Pokuase.
He said on September 27, 2011, he received a message that he should appear at the Accra Circuit Court One to testify in the matter, where he was asked to tender the laboratory report and the exhibit which had been brought to the court by a new investigator in the matter, Lance Corporal Joseph Owusu.
The witness said the laboratory report was tendered in evidence in court without any objection from the accused and that all parties in the case were present to see to it that the exhibit contained the seal from the laboratory.
Lance Corporal Anyekase added that the substance, which was contained in a brown envelope with the seal, was shown to the defence counsel, who did not raise an objection, and tendered in evidence. He said even before the tendering, the judge ordered the opening of the substance to be shown to the accused for confirmation.
He indicated that after the court had taken custody of the exhibit on September 28, 2011, the judge asked that it be brought to the court, at which point counsel for the accused raised an objection.
At that point, he stated, the prosecutor raised an objection as to why the substance had been tendered in evidence only for counsel to question its authenticity, but the court over-ruled the prosecutor’s objection and ordered the re-testing of the exhibit.
Taking his turn, the second witness, Detective Constable Joseph Owusu, who is the investigator who handled the case to its conclusion, said he took over the case from Lance Corporal Anyekase in 2009, with a docket bearing a case between the Republic and Nana Ama Martins.
He said the accused person was granted bail by a High Court and never turned up in court until 2010 when the circuit court issued a bench warrant for her arrest.
According to him, the accused was later re-arrested and handed over to the police on charges of possessing narcotic drugs.
Detective Constable Owusu said when the case was handed over to him, investigations were almost complete and that the unit commander handed the exhibit to one Detective Inspector Nketia, accompanied by Inspector Gershon Agbelevu, to be tendered in the court on September 6, 2011.
For his part, DSP Agyei-Tuadzra said he assumed duty at the unit on August 28, 2010 and among the exhibits he saw when he took office was a brown envelope containing cocaine, explaining that by the chain of custody rules in the service, he had to check to ensure that all the exhibits in the custody of the CID had not been tampered with.
In the particular case of the cocaine in question, it was sent for safekeeping, bearing in mind the magnitude of the instant case because the cocaine had a street value of $44,000 and, therefore, there was every reason to handle it with due care.
The trial judge, who will also testify before the committee, was represented by Mr Robert Kingsley Yeboah, who cross-examined the witnesses over the lax manner in which they handled the exhibit.
Hearing continues Friday.
The committee, chaired by a Justice of the Court of Appeal, Mrs Justice Agnes Dordzie, has Mr Justice Abdullah Iddrisu, a Justice of the High Court, and Mr John Bannerman, the Chief Registrar General, as members and Nii Boye Quartey, a Deputy Human Resource Director, as Secretary.
The terms of reference of the committee are to establish the role played by the trial judge and other court officials, including the registrar and the court clerk, in the matter and other matters related thereto.