Major Mahama lynching: Accused reject potential jurors

An Accra High Court hearing the case involving the alleged murderers of Major Maxwell Mahama could not empanel a jury for the trial to commence because of the rejection of eight potential jurors presented by the court.

The Judicial Service presented 14 potential jurors out of which seven would have to be selected to form the jury but the accused together with their lawyers rejected eight of them and accepted six, made up of two females and four males.

Under the country’s legal system, an accused has the right to raise objection three times without stating reasons but beyond that any other objection must be backed by a concrete explanation.

After, a back and forth of selecting one more person to complement the jury, the court stood the case down to enable the lawyers and the court officials to see how best they could settle on that person but all attempts proved futile.

Following several rejections by the accused, the presiding judge, Justice Mariama Owusu adjourned the case to Monday, April 16th and ordered the judicial service to provide five potential jurors on that day for, which one would be selected to complete the number.

The State has said it had gathered 53 pieces of incriminating evidence, including video, pictures against the 14 persons.

The accused persons are William Baah, the Assemblyman of Denkyira Obuasi, Bernard Asamoah alias Daddy, Kofi Nyarko aka Abortion, Akwasi Baah, Kwame Tuffour, Joseph Appiah Kubi, Michael Anim and Bismarck Donkor.

Others are John Bosie, Akwasi Baah, Charles Kwaning, Emmanuel Badu, Bismarck Abanga and Kwadwo Anima.

The 14 accused persons are standing trial at an Accra High Court for the death of the Major Mahama, an Officer of the 5th Infantry Battalion at the Burma Camp who was on duty at Dankyira-Obuasi, when on May 29, he was lynched by some residents, who allegedly mistook him for an armed robber because he had a pistol in his back pocket.

The mob ignored his consistent plea that he was an officer of the Ghana Armed Forces.