Four in Mayhem on bail Await

Akim Oda (E/R), Sept 4, GNA - The Akim Swedru circuit court has granted bail to four people from Aim Winch for their alleged involvement in a mayhem at Await in the Eastern Region. The arrest on August 15 was two days close to August 18, this year, fixed by the Electoral Commission to the re-run of the election in the six polling stations in the Await Constituency. George Ntiamoah, a trader; Issa Ali alias Kofi Essumang, labourer; Ernest Nifa alias Kwaku Ernest, labourer; and Owusu Tabi, a farmer denied knowledge of causing unlawful damage and threat of death. Thirteen accomplices are on the run.

Pronouncing bail for the four, Mr Kofi Akrowiah, the trial judge, stated: "Let the accused persons be submitted to bail in the sum of GHc500.00 with one surety each, to reappear on September 9." Mr A.E. Attafuah, counsel for the accused persons, had earlier applied for bail for the four. He told the court that his clients are Ghanaians who have permanent places of abode, and that they would neither abscond nor interfere with any witness or evidence and/or in any way hamper police investigations. Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Emmanuel Arzah Mamalieh prosecuted. He told the court that the complainants are married couples who lived at Akim Wenchi near Akim Oda in the Eastern Region, while 13 others who also lived at Akim Wenchi had absconded for their involvement in the mayhem.

DSP Mamalieh, who is also the Divisional Crime Officer, said on Sunday, August 16, at about 1400 hours, a group of about 25 young men from Akim Wenchi went to Akwatia and created disturbances. He stated that one of the complainants, Mr Kwadwo Korankye, from Wenchi who knows the accused persons was at Akwatia during police investigations. As a result, the four accused persons and the 13 accomplices held the perception that the complainants were assisting the police to identify and arrest them for their involvement in causing chaos and confusion.

The Divisional Crime Officer said the accused persons and their accomplices, wielding sticks and a gallon of petrol, went to the house of the couple to lynch and burn them, but the other complainant, Madam Abena Frimpomaa who spotted them managed to flee. They then vandalised the kitchen utensils and destroyed plantain trees around the house. DSP Mamalieh said on August 20 this year, Ntiamoah, Ali, Nifa and Tabi were arrested, while the 13 accomplices laid ambush to attack the police vehicle which was backed up by a military armed vehicle, but they escaped.

The prosecutor later told the Ghana News Agency at Akim Oda that Madam Frimpomaa had gone into hiding for fear of being killed by the accomplices.