By Stephen Kwabena Effah
December 14, 2011
A total of 1,020 grammes of substances, tested as cocaine three years ago in Police Forensic Laboratory, have mysteriously turned into Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), while in the custody of the police.
The new twist was noticed after a re-test of the substances this year by the Ghana by the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA). This resulted in the acquittal and discharge by an Accra Circuit Court yesterday, of a woman standing trial for possessing the substances.
The woman, Nana Ama Martins, was arrested in 2008 with the substances.
The court has consequently indicted the Police Administration and has ordered the Inspector-General of Police to institute a service enquiry to determine who might have tampered with the substance.
The re-test of the substance was at the request of the defence team on the grounds that what was retrieved from the accused was not cocaine, contrary to the result of the police test.
Although the prosecution objected to the request, the court, presided over by Mr. Eric Kyei Baffour said in the interest of justice and in accordance with an established principle by the Supreme Court, a re-test was necessary.
In the presence of the court registrar and the investigator, the GSA conducted three different tests on the substance, all of which proved negative for cocaine.
Upholding a submission of “no case” made by the defence, Mr. Kyei-Baffour held that evidence adduced by the four prosecution witnesses who testified at the close of its case showed that the accused person had custody of the substance.
However, he said: “Clearly, the evidence of the prosecution becomes so manifestly unreliable that it will be wrong for the court to invite the accused to open her defence as to whether the substance found on her was cocaine or has not.”
According to Mr Kyei-Baffour the prosecution’s failure to prove that the substance is cocaine has been a waste of the precious time of the court.
“If the substance the prosecution produced before the court was what it tested to be cocaine at the police forensic laboratory, how come that the same substance could suddenly become sodium bi-carbonate?” he asked.
The Judge recalled that David Agyapong Agyin, a government analyst who did the first test at the Police Forensic Laboratory three years ago, using the same method had told the court that if another test proved to be negative for cocaine, then it was not the substance he conducted the test on.
He questioned the professional conduct of the State Attorney, Stella Arhin, who prosecuted the case, especially when she urged the court to convict the accused person though the cocaine, based on which she was charged turned out to be sodium carbonate.
Mr. Kyei-Baffour wondered why the state attorney “was extremely troubled” when the court agreed to the request by defence for another test on the substance, adding at a point she retorted that the substance could have been changed in court.
He pointed out that a lawyer whether for the state or a private person is not a robot for his or her client, saying a lawyer’s allegiance is to a higher cause, that is justice and truth.
The prosecution’s case was that on August 22, 2008 the police had a tip-off that the occupants of a taxi cab in traffic at Roman Ridge were dealing in narcotics.
The police stopped the vehicle and arrested the occupants one of whom was the accused. The other occupants managed to escape.
At the police station, the accused was asked to empty the two bags she had on her and one of them, contained a slab which was suspected to be cocaine and she was handed over to the narcotic unit of the police.
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