Maj. Mahama murder case nears judgement after 13th & 14th accused waive rights to give evidence

The case in which William Baah, the Assembly member of Denkyira Obuasi and 13 others have been accused of lynching young military officer, Major Maxwell Adams Mahama nears judgement after all the 14 accused persons have closed their case.

Out of the 14 persons standing trial, three of them Kofi Nyame, (3rd Accused), Bismark Abanga, (13th Accused)’ and Kwadwo Anima, (14th Accused), all waived their rights not to mount defence.

On Monday, June 5, 2023, lawyers of the 13th and 14th Accused persons led by Lawyer Patrick Anim Addo waived their clients' rights to give evidence and by that meant that they have no evidence and closed their case.

EIB Network’s Legal Affairs Correspondent, Murtala Inusah, reports that the case has been adjourned to June 26, 2023, to ensure that the parties received all the records of proceedings.

After, Justice Mariama Owusu, a Justice of the Supreme Court, sitting as an additional High Court judge, will make further directions to the parties on written addresses.

The accused persons are William Baah, the Assembly member of Denkyira-Obuasi, Bernard Asamoah, alias Daddy, Kofi Nyame a.k.a Abortion, Charles Kwaning a.k.a Akwasi Boah, Kwame Tuffour, Joseph Appiah Kubi, Michael Anim and Bismarck Donkor.

The others are John Bosie, Akwasi Asante, Charles Kwaning, Emmanuel Badu, Bismarck Abanga and Kwadwo Anima.

While William Baah, the Assemblyman has pleaded not guilty to the charge of abetment, the remaining 13 have also denied the charges of conspiracy to commit murder and murder.

All of them are currently in lawful custody.

I’m innocent

Before the accused persons closed their respective cases, Akwasi Asante who is the 10th Accused denied his involvement in the murder of the army officer.

In his defence to the court, he prayed the court to discharge him to enable him go and look after his wife and children.

Akwasi Asante, a farmer and meat seller told the court that he is innocent of the charges of conspiracy and murder.

Mounting defence to charges before Justice Mariama Owusu, a Justice of the Supreme Court sitting as an additional High Court judge, Akwasi Asante, said as a result of his incarceration, his family and marriage is in tatters.

Cross-Examination

Under Cross Examination from the Prosecution, he said it is not true that he fired at the head of late Major Mahama, resulting in his death.

The accused had told the court that, even though he was seen in the video holding a gun, he was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Prosecution led by Mrs Evelyn Keelson, Chief State Attorney, identified the accused person both in a photo album and in an amateur video wearing a white T-Shirt with a yellow collar and a pair of black trousers with a gun.

In his response, the accused person said even though he was seen at the scene, he did not fire any gun at the deceased because he was rather on his way to repair his faulty gun.

It was the case of the prosecution that on May 29, 2017, the accused ran to one Opanyi Dumor’s room, a witness in the trial to pick a gun and went back to the scene purposely to shoot the deceased but the accused disagreed.

While admitting that he took the gun from Opanyi Dumor’s room, Asante said it was not functional, hence his desire to repair it.

But the prosecution insisted that per a ballistic expert, who was a witness in the trial, the gun was functional.

When the Prosecution suggested to him that on the said day of the incident, he together with other accused persons intentionally cause the death of the late Major Mahama, the accused disagreed.

“My Lord, even killing an animal is not easy, how much more a human being, I was at the wrong place at the wrong time,” he added.

Asante said at all material times insisted he was standing by the roadside waiting for a vehicle but the prosecution maintained that he was part of the alleged person, who lynched the army officer.

Fourteen persons are standing trial at the Accra High Court over the killing of Major Mahama, who was an officer of the 5th Infantry Battalion, at Burma Camp.

The late Major Mahama while on duty at Denkyira-Obuasi in the Central Region on May 29, 2017, some residents allegedly mistook him for an armed robber and lynched him, ignoring his persistent plea that he was an officer of the Ghana Armed Forces.

Brief facts

The facts, presented by the prosecution, were that Major Mahama was the commander of a military detachment stationed at Diaso in the Upper Denkyira West District in the Central Region to check illegal mining activities.

At 8 am on May 29, 2017, Major Mahama, wearing civilian clothes but with his sidearm, left his detachment base for a 20-kilometre jogging.

At 9:25 a.m., the military officer got to the outskirts of Denkyira Obuasi, where a number of women were selling foodstuffs by the roadside.

He stopped to interact with the women and even bought some snails, which he left in their custody to be taken up on his return from jogging.

While he was taking out money from his pocket to pay for the snails, the woman from whom he had bought the snails and a few others saw his sidearm tucked to his waist.

Soon after he left, one of the women telephoned the assembly member for Denkyira Obuasi to report what they had seen.

“Without verifying the information, the assembly member mobilised the accused persons and others, some now at large, to attack the military officer,” the prosecution stated.

It added that the mob met Major Mahama near the Denkyira Obuasi cemetery and, without giving him the opportunity to explain and identify himself, “attacked him with implements such as clubs, cement blocks and machetes, killed him and burnt a portion of his body”.