THE TWO men, who have been accused of murdering the British –American Missionary, Rev. Sidney Thomas Barnes, seem to be in hot waters as they have no lawyers to represent them in court.
The two accused persons, Kofi Seidu, a driver and Rev. Padmore Goodwill, caretaker of the Prestige Secretarial and Computer School, Koforidua, were to appear before an Accra High Court presided over by Justice Charles Quist to answer charges of murder.
However, when the case was called the accused persons were absent. Elizabeth Sackeyfio, the state attorney handling the case, indicated to the court that the accused persons had not yet engaged lawyers to represent them and, therefore, sought an adjournment hoping that they would have got lawyers by then.
The trial judge, before adjourning the matter to May 21, ordered the accused persons to be represented by Legal Aid.
The two accused persons were on July 3, 2012 committed for murder by an Accra District Magistrate court.
During the opening of the criminal session this year, their case was the first to be called. Kofi Seidu pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit crime and denied the murder charge.
Rev. Padmore denied all the two charges.
The facts of the case, disclosed that Rev. Barnes was killed by the accused persons and his body buried in a well at his pawpaw farm at Nsawam Adoagyiri.
The body was later exhumed when Seidu, on October 11, 2010, led a team of investigators and pathologists from the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital to the Mana Mission Farm, where the missionary was buried.
The deceased was a British-America national, who had lived in Ghana since 1997 and established a church called Cross Road Christian Mission Incorporated in Koforidua the Eastern Regional capital, where he lived.
He also had a pawpaw and pineapple farm at Akwamu-Amanfo near Nsawam Adoagyiri which Kofi Seidu was the manager. The murdered Man of God also owned the Prestige Secretarial and Computer School where Pastor Padmore Goodwill was the principal.
Rev. Sidney Barnes, 75, took a leave to the Americas on December 27, 2009 and was to return to Ghana on March 18, 2010.
He was allegedly murdered on arrival. Kofi Seidu had since admitted that he was part of the group that killed the pastor and also disclosed that it was Rev Padmore who sent them to commit the heinous crime.
