Court Threatens To Strike Out Tehoda's Case, Saturday, May 19, 2012 (page 3)
The Accra Circuit Court hearing the cocaine-turn-soda case involving DSP Gifty
Mawuenyegah Tehoda has threatened to strike out the case if the state continues
to show no interest in the matter.
The court, presided over by Mr Francis Obiri, ordered the Attorney-General’s Department to make an appearance on the next adjourned date or have the case struck out.
“If your case is here and you don’t send any letter or anyone but you sit in your office without respecting the court, I will strike it out,” he warned.
Mr Obiri gave the warning after Mr E.A. Vordaogu, counsel for Tehoda, had declared his intention to file a motion for the court to acquit and discharge his client because neither the investigator nor the prosecutor appeared to have any interest in the case.
Mr Vordaogu catalogued a number of dates on which the prosecution was not in court, saying the most recent was April 20, 2011 when the prosecution failed to appear in court and the case was adjourned to April 27, 2012.
On that date, he submitted, the prosecution again failed to appear, only to come later in the day to ask for May 18, 2012, without recourse to the defence team.
“We are here today and the prosecution is not here. This is the 11th time the matter has to be adjourned at the behest of the prosecution. It appears the army worm on rampage in the Ketu District of the Volta Region has engulfed the AG’s office,” he said.
The defence, he stated, would file a motion not for the case to be struck out but for the accused person to be acquitted and discharged, since it appeared the A-G’s Office was not interested in continuing the case.
“I will make available documents to the court to show the number of times the prosecution has failed to appear in court,” he said.
“This is a matter in which the accused has been denigrated too much. It is for the A-G, if he has the evidence, to prosecute her. The A-G’s Office has run out of excuses and become a fugitive who is running here and there from its own shadow,” he added.
A State Attorney who was in court, but not in connection with the case, pledged to inform the Principal State Attorney, Mr Rexford Wiredu, of the developments and explained that the failure of the A-G’s Office to appear in court was probably due to the fact that the case was still being investigated, since it involved narcotics.
But the judge objected to the excuse and insisted that the prosecution come to court on the adjourned date, saying it was now a convention in his court that such cases would be struck out if the prosecution failed to appear in court on four or five consecutive times.
DSP Tehoda is facing one count of abetment of crime, to wit, undertaking an activity relating to narcotic drugs, contrary to Section 56 (c) and 3 (2) of PNDCL 236, Narcotic Drugs (Control, Enforcement and Sanctions) Act 1990, for her alleged role in the 1,020 grammes of cocaine which turned into sodium carbonate.
She was released on bail by the Accra Fast Track High Court on February 14, 2012 pending trial at the circuit court.
The court admitted her to bail in the sum of GH¢100,000, with two sureties, one of which was to be justified.
The court, presided over by Mr Francis Obiri, ordered the Attorney-General’s Department to make an appearance on the next adjourned date or have the case struck out.
“If your case is here and you don’t send any letter or anyone but you sit in your office without respecting the court, I will strike it out,” he warned.
Mr Obiri gave the warning after Mr E.A. Vordaogu, counsel for Tehoda, had declared his intention to file a motion for the court to acquit and discharge his client because neither the investigator nor the prosecutor appeared to have any interest in the case.
Mr Vordaogu catalogued a number of dates on which the prosecution was not in court, saying the most recent was April 20, 2011 when the prosecution failed to appear in court and the case was adjourned to April 27, 2012.
On that date, he submitted, the prosecution again failed to appear, only to come later in the day to ask for May 18, 2012, without recourse to the defence team.
“We are here today and the prosecution is not here. This is the 11th time the matter has to be adjourned at the behest of the prosecution. It appears the army worm on rampage in the Ketu District of the Volta Region has engulfed the AG’s office,” he said.
The defence, he stated, would file a motion not for the case to be struck out but for the accused person to be acquitted and discharged, since it appeared the A-G’s Office was not interested in continuing the case.
“I will make available documents to the court to show the number of times the prosecution has failed to appear in court,” he said.
“This is a matter in which the accused has been denigrated too much. It is for the A-G, if he has the evidence, to prosecute her. The A-G’s Office has run out of excuses and become a fugitive who is running here and there from its own shadow,” he added.
A State Attorney who was in court, but not in connection with the case, pledged to inform the Principal State Attorney, Mr Rexford Wiredu, of the developments and explained that the failure of the A-G’s Office to appear in court was probably due to the fact that the case was still being investigated, since it involved narcotics.
But the judge objected to the excuse and insisted that the prosecution come to court on the adjourned date, saying it was now a convention in his court that such cases would be struck out if the prosecution failed to appear in court on four or five consecutive times.
DSP Tehoda is facing one count of abetment of crime, to wit, undertaking an activity relating to narcotic drugs, contrary to Section 56 (c) and 3 (2) of PNDCL 236, Narcotic Drugs (Control, Enforcement and Sanctions) Act 1990, for her alleged role in the 1,020 grammes of cocaine which turned into sodium carbonate.
She was released on bail by the Accra Fast Track High Court on February 14, 2012 pending trial at the circuit court.
The court admitted her to bail in the sum of GH¢100,000, with two sureties, one of which was to be justified.
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