Court Restrains Police Administration From Ejecting DSP Tehoda

The Human Rights Court has rejected a request by the Police Administration to eject a former Deputy Head of the Police Commercial Crimes Unit, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Gifty Mawuenyega Tehoda, from her official residence. The Police Administration was seeking an order from the court to eject DSP Tehoda, who had been dismissed from the police service for her alleged complicity in a case in which seized cocaine in the custody of the police turned into sodium bicarbonate. She has denied the allegations and the case is pending before the court. DSP Tehoda had filed an application restraining the police from ejecting her. Giving its ruling, the court, presided over by Mr Justice Mensah, said accommodation was a human rights issue for which reason the court could not grant the request. Regarding claims by the police that DSP Tehoda�s continuous stay in the residence provided by the police service posed a security threat, the court wondered when a police officer became a security threat when many ordinary civilians were staying in police barracks. Shooting down another argument by the police that it lacked adequate accommodation for its serving officers, the court said accommodation for police personnel had always been a problem so the institution could not use DSP Tehoda�s as an excuse. DSP Tehoda was dragged before an Accra Circuit Court in a case involving some missing cocaine but later, the Human Rights Court dismissed the case. A fresh case of abetment of crime, to wit, stealing of cocaine, was subsequently preferred against her on February 6, 2013, but she has zdenied the charge too. The case is pending before the same court.