General News of Monday, 5 November 2012

Source: The Ghanaian Times

Tehoda speaks again: My dismissal is a cover up

DSP Gifty Mawuenyega Tehoda DSP Gifty Mawuenyega Tehoda

The former Deputy Head of the Commercial Crime Unit of the Ghana Police Service, Mrs. Gifty Mawuenyaga Tehoda, has vowed to pursue justice in the cocaine turned baking soda case until the real culprits are found.
Consequently, she has challenged the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) to make public their findings after its investigations into the matter.
Mrs. Tehoda threw the challenge in a follow-up to our front page story on Friday with the headline, “I Will Spill the Bean.... I' have been sacrificed.”
She insisted that, she was arraigned before court based on the investigations conducted by the BNI and wondered why the same institution had asked that she should be discharged unconditionally by the court, and yet the Police Service disregarded the verdict and dismissed her.
Insisting on her claim, that she had been sacrificed, Mrs. Tehoda again wondered why she was indicted together with Deputy Superintended of Police (DSP) Kofi Tudzra, the Commander in-charge of the Narcotic Unit of the Police Service, and yet she was the only one taken to court.
“Two of us were indicted based on the evidence before the BNI, and yet one person is at post and I have been dismissed,” she alleged.
Mrs. Tehoda maintained that, she had not been treated fairly and described her dismissal as a ploy to cover up and use her as a “scapegoat”.
She asked, “What evidence do the police have” and referred to a purported police inquiry into the matter which she said did not take place.
The former Deputy Head of the Commercial Unit, said her dismissal which the police claimed was based on recommendations of the Central Disciplinary Board was inappropriate.
“There has not been any service inquiry or trial, because my lawyers objected to it, and that the matter was then before the court.”
“What was then the basis for my dismissal. I insist that I did not appear before a service inquiry neither was there a trial that found me guilty of any offence,” she said.
Mrs. Tehoda, therefore, called on the BNI to make public their findings so that Ghanaians and the world would know the truth. She referred to portions of the earlier publication which indicated that she threatened the IGP and the Police and said “she was rather directing her anger at the BNI.
“Since it was the BNI that prosecuted me, I could not have ignored them. My challenge is for them to come out with the truth since some worse evidence have emerged,” she said.
Mrs Tehoda alleged that a number of officers had been arrested by the BNI in connection with the matter and challenged them to mention their names.
“I have right to know who did that wicked thing to me, my family and friends, the condemnation is going on, those who believe me are still supporting, but the irony is that I have been dismissed and I have to fight this injustice even though the court has discharged me unconditionally,” she said.