Court Erred In Granting �Missing� Cocaine Suspect Bail � Police

The Ghana Police Service has expressed shock and disappointment in the judicial system for granting Nana Ama Martin, the suspect who was arrested with 1,020 grammes of cocaine � which mysteriously turned into baking powder � bail on two occasions. Madam Martin was arrested on 28 August 2008 with the alleged cocaine slabs, but was granted bail by an Accra High Court contrary to the spirit of the Criminal Code after the substance had been tested and proven to be cocaine. DSP Kofi Adjei Tuadzrah, Head of the Narcotic Unit at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Thursday stated that the suspect was granted bail on November 11 and later absconded but was lured back into the country by her surety. DSP Tuadzrah explained that although possessing narcotics is a non-bailable offense, the suspect�s counsel managed to secure another bail at the High Court to the sum of 60,000 Ghana cedis with two sureties on the 16th September 2011 while trial was still on-going. DSP Tuadzrah, who narrated the sequence of events leading to the strange disappearance of the cocaine, which was in the custody of the court stated that the court had no business to release the suspect. He added that the police cannot be indicted for the mysterious disappearance of the cocaine after their Forensic Unit handed over tested and confirmed cocaine substance to the court in the full glare of the public on the 27th of September. He said the Police Service was shocked after they went back to Court on 28 September 2011 for the defence attorney to call for a re-testing of the substance which had already been tested twice and confirmed to be cocaine. According to him, the bigger surprise came when the next test revealed that the substance was sodium bicarbonate and not cocaine contrary to initial results. This he said led to the suspect being acquitted and discharged on Tuesday. He was, however, positive that despite the setback the truth will surely come out after the various committees set up to investigate the matter come out with their reports.