Mobilla Was Beaten With Stick - Witness

Detective George Mensah Kpegli, the prosecution witness who said he had additional evidence on vivid events leading to the death of Issah Mobilla , former Northern Regional Chairman of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), told an Accra Fast Track High Court that Cpl Yaw Appiah was not the only who maltreated the deceased.

He told the court presided over by Justice Habib Logoh that his alleged accomplice, Private Modzaka Eric, used a cane as thick as the size of three fingers to beat the deceased.


The witness stated that the beating occurred after Cpl Appiah told Mobilla that “today you will shit blood” and told him to ‘kneel’ on his hands with his legs hanging upwards.


Kpegli said this in his examination-in-chief when he was led by Penelope Ann Mamattah, the principal state attorney.


The police also maintained that the deceased was in good health when he was sent to Kamina Barracks from the regional police headquarters in Tamale.


According to him, he and his other two colleagues who sent Mobilla to Kamina even had a chat with him and he was alright.


Kpegli, who started his evidence but had to suspend it in order to seek leave of the court to give additional evidence, said he was intimidated by one of his superiors, who had warned him not to do anything to indict the military.

According to him, at the committee set up to investigate the death of Mobilla, he had to comply with the same instructions from his superiors and that was why he had to seek leave of the court to say exactly what he knew about the death of Mobilla.


The witness said he had to write three different statements in respect of the case. According to Sergeant Kpegli, two out of the three statements were rejected because their contents were an indictment on the Military Command. He said due to the contents of his statements, he had his rank reduced while his colleague, Lance Corporal Avernori, who was also in the case, was dismissed from the Ghana Police Service. In addition, the witness said he was there when the pathologist examined the body of Mobilla and showed him certain parts of the deceased’s body which had been damaged as a result of what the pathologist said was beating.


He said he was also there when photographs of Mobilla’s body were taken.


Under cross examination by Thadeus Sory, the police officer maintained that Mobilla was made to ‘kneel’ with his hands while his legs were hanging but Sory put it to him that it would be impossible for someone of Mobilla’s age to do that kind of exercise unless he was held to the wall.


Kpegli was allowed by the court to give additional evidence after the trial judge said it would be in the interest of justice to ensure that the witness told the court all that he knew about Mobilla’s death.


The case has been adjourned to March 16, 2012.