The four-member Committee set up by Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Woode to investigate circumstances under which some 1,020 grammes of cocaine turned into sodium bicarbonate finished its public sitting nearly two weeks ago, but Ghanaians are yet to be told the findings of the week-long probe.
Citi News investigations have revealed that ahead of the just-ended Christmas holidays, a bulky report was reportedly prepared by the Mrs Justice Agnes Dodzie-led Committee that probed the cocaine-turned-baking soda scandal and handed it over to the nation�s third most important public servant.
However, nearly two weeks on, not a single word has come from the office of the nation�s first female boss of the Judiciary as to the exact contents of the fat document.
�The report is being heavily guarded like a state secrete instead of telling Ghanaians what the committee did and what they found,� said a senior judge who wished to remain anonymous.
According to Citi News reporter Richard Sky, �insiders have refused to give details as to the true content of the report, but say the report holds the key to unravelling the whereabouts of the missing cocaine. �
In setting up the Committee, the third arm of government had promised to be transparent and to make full disclosure to Ghanaians as to the findings of the Committee. But, with the office of the Chief Justice apparently pussyfooting over the release of the report, there are growing insider concerns the seeming delay may trigger renewed public bashing of the Judiciary, which has been at the receiving end of heavy corruption-related public criticism since last year.
Attempt to conceal content
�From the way I see it, there appears to be an attempt by the powers that be to conceal the content of that report from the full view of the Ghanaian public,� said Kwame, an Accra resident who spoke to this reporter on Wednesday.
�I cannot understand why the whole investigation was widely publicised from beginning to end, but till today Ghanaians have not been told the findings of the Committee. What at all is the Chief Justice waiting for? � added Kwame, a taxi driver who said he �followed the story ever since it broke. �
Thomas Ame, a passenger in his vehicle also commented: �I agree perfectly with the view that this report should have been in the public domain by now. We demand to know what went down between the Police administration and the court that heard the cocaine case we are talking about. �
Their calls for immediate release of the report have received strong backing from David Amaliba, a known critic of the Judiciary.
�I am worried and I know majority of Ghanaians are equally worried. Considering the swift nature in which the committee was set up,� he told our reporter.
�The committee sat in public, therefore, the more the report delays, the more it will deepen the public perception that the committee was set up to white-wash the judiciary,� he added.
�The public perception about the judiciary is not good and it is my view that the Chief Justice, by keeping this report is not helping matters,� Amaliba said, adding �it is in the Chief Justice�s own interest and in the very best interest of the Judiciary as an institution to swiftly release the report, just as she was swift in setting up the committee to investigate the missing cocaine. �
Report not ready?
But a top official of the Judiciary is denying claims that the committee�s report has been submitted to the Chief Justice.
�The report is not ready yet,� said Judicial Secretary Justice Alex Acheampong when reached on phone Wednesday morning.
But, sources within the Judiciary insist that �the report was indeed handed over the Chief Justice. �
�If the Judicial Secretary told you the report is not ready, I am sorry to say he may have been economical with the truth,� one source, a respected judge, said.
On Tuesday, the Mills administration issued a statement in which it said the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) had requested an extension in the ultimatum given in by the President to investigate the latest missing cocaine scandal.
�Government has announced that the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) had requested an extension beyond the seven day timeframe given to it in order to complete its investigations into the circumstances leading to a substance which was initially tested to be cocaine and later turning into sodium bicarbonate,� said an official government statement released in Accra yesterday.
The statement was titled �Government expecting BNI report this week. � It was signed by a Deputy Information Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa. It said �the BNI requested the extension which government duly granted,� and quoted the Deputy Minister as saying �the BNI has up to the 6th of January 2012 to present its report to the President. �
It said: �It will be recalled that on the 14th of December, Government tasked the BNI to unravel the mystery surrounding how a substance suspected to be cocaine and handed over to an Accra Circuit Court turned into sodium bicarbonate. �The BNI had been given seven days to submit its report on whether the substance handed over to the court by the Police in September 2011, and which had since been in the custody of the court, was the same substance that was later presented to the Ghana Standards Board for testing. �
Government, the statement concluded, �is not taking this matter lightly and that there is utmost determination to unravel the mystery and let justice reign. �
<<Print>>