Gifty Mawuenyega Tehoda
An Accra Human Rights court yesterday deferred judgement on the case in which DSP Gifty Mawuenyega Tehoda is battling the Ghana Police Service over her wrongful dismissal.
The court, presided over by Gifty Agyei-Addo, had set yesterday for judgemnet after it had granted an application by lawyers of the embattled former police chief to adopt proceedings and the addresses in the court of the now dismissed high court judge, Justice Kofi Essel Mensah.
At the hearing of the case yesterday, the judge said the court had discovered a conflicting suit by the applicant that was filed in November 2012 and thus, needed clarification on which of the cases the court was to deliver its judgment on.
The said conflicting suit has however, been removed from the records, paving the way for the court to reschedule the judgement date to March 31.
The case involving DSP Tehoda began in September 2011 when one Nana Ama Martins was arrested for allegedly possessing large parcels of a substance suspected to be cocaine, which later reportedly turned into bicarbonate or baking soda.
DSP Tehoda was linked to the disappearance of the suspected cocaine and its replacement with the said soda. She was interdicted and subsequently dismissed from the Police Service.
However, an Accra circuit court consequently acquitted and discharged her of any criminality.
DSP Tehoda sued the Police Service for wrongful dismissal.
She is praying the court to compel the Service to reinstate and compensate her for being out of the Service for the past six years.
Both parties in the suit completed their cases before the previous judge, Mr Kofi Essel Mensah, was dismissed as a result of his involvement in the Anas Aremeyaw Anas judicial bribery and corruption scandal.
DSP Thehoda is seeking a declaration that her prosecution by the state over the alleged swapping of cocaine is malicious.
She also wants a declaration that her detention in cells beyond 48 hours by the BNI was unlawful.
By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson
