Defence Counsel for a suspect charged with narcotic offences in 2008 has defended his decision to request for a re-testing of cocaine exhibit tendered in evidence at the circuit court on September 27, 2010. Kwabla Senanu argued the exhibit was without the pungent smell of cocaine when it was tendered in evidence by the Police. He became suspicious, he added. “…Until they [police] brought the exhibit, opened it and tendered it then I suspected it. As I indicated to the court that peculiar unique scent which wax around momentarily the moment it is opened was not there. “In its block form it is concentrated and it comes with a pungent scent,” Senanu told a panel at a public hearing constituted by the Chief Justice to investigate the circumstances surrounding the swapping of the cocaine exhibit with washing soda. According to him, his request for re-testing of the exhibit was met with serious fear within the echelons of the Police HQ. “Since the day I raised the objection there was sleepless night at the police HQ,” he alleged, adding he did not have confidence in the police and called for cleansing of the police institution. Senanu argued the police ought to have allowed an independent party to conduct the test for cocaine, instead of doing it themselves. Meanwhile, a forensic lab analyst with the police has testified before the committee that there is a possibility that the substance the police worked on in 2008 and which prove positive for cocaine may not be the same substance tendered in evidence in court on September 27, 2010 as exhibit. David Agyapong Adjin made the statement during cross examination on Monday by Robert Kingsley Yeboah, Counsel for Circuit Court Judge. The police have been vehement in arguing that the substance they tendered in evidence to the court was cocaine and could not therefore be held liable for the swapping of the substance into washing soda. The Circuit Court Judge, Eric Kyei-Baffuor who is in the middle of the controversy has again affirmed before the panel his innocence in the swapping of the cocaine substance. He told the committee he resuscitated the case and ordered for the re-arrest of the cocaine suspect, Nana Ama Martin after the prosecution and the police all left the case to gather dust on the shelves of Circuit Court. He cannot therefore do anything to destroy the sanctity of the case he has worked so hard to resuscitate. Superintendent of Police Paul Kissi Frimpong in an interview with Joy News' Dzifa Bampoh said the police took measures to ensure that the exhibit they tendered in court was cocaine. He would not answer claims by the circuit judge that it is he, not the police who showed more interest in getting the case over and done with. Kissi Frimpong said the police have not finished laying its evidence before the committee and urged all to be patient until the committee is out with its findings. Play the attached audio for excerpts of Kwabla Senanu's submissions in court