Army will probe Mahama's lone jog – CDS

Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Lieutenant General Obed Akwa has indicated that investigations will be conducted into why Captain Maxwell Mahama, who was lynched by some irate youth of Denkyira Obuasi in the Central Region on suspicion that he was an armed robber on Monday, 29 May, was jogging alone at the time he was attacked.

Speaking at a press conference jointly organised by the Ghana Police Service and the Ghana Armed Forces at the Police Headquarters in Accra on Friday, June 2, on matters relating to the murder of the Captain, Lt Gen Akwa said: “On the question of why he was walking alone, we are going to investigate that.”

“Regarding the question of whether he was on an unauthorised operation, I was at the army headquarters when this operation started and the Second Battalion of Infantry was tasked to undertake it. The reason why he was in that area for the operation was because he had been detailed to release somebody else who had to write promotional exams. That is why he was there.”

His comments come at a time Major Osahene Boakye-Djan, a retired military officer, is questioning why Captain Mahama chose to go jogging alone in the community where he was murdered.

According to him, per military training and practice, military officers do not walk alone when away on national assignment, hence he found the circumstances surrounding the murder as unacceptable.

Captain Mahama was lynched by an angry mob at Denkyira Obuasi in the Central Region on suspicion that he was an armed robber on Monday 29 May when a group of people he asked directions from while jogging spotted a pistol on him.

Commenting on this matter in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom, on Accra100.5FM on Friday June 2, he said: “That was not how we were trained, it was not part of our training that you alone go on a jog. So my question is: ‘what was his mission there?’ If you are in a military detachment and you are going jogging, you don’t go with a sidekick?”

“The report coming so far is that the Captain was on early morning jogging without a sidekick or without a number two attached to him? Now the man is dead so who came and told us that he was exercising? Whose story is that? The practice is that you should be accompanied by somebody else. It doesn’t happen that a Captain alone will be going jogging, that is not part of our training. Ask anybody, in those days when we are going jogging we would move in a group, so my question is, ‘what was his mission there (village)?’

“If you are a detachment commander and you are going on early morning exercise, you don’t go with your sidekick, at least one person with you? You do not walk into an operational area alone, so where was his sidekick? I find something wrong unless the information is to cover up. A senior Captain finding himself in a situation where he is not accompanied by anybody from his detachment, it is not done. Now he is dead and we know dead men don’t talk, but who reported that he was exercising? We need to question that person.”