No Bail For Greg Afoko, Please!

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Garden City, New York

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

The prime suspects responsible for the brutal and grisly assassination of Mr. Adams Mahama, the former Upper-East regional chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), continue to desperately battle against the proverbially long arm of the law. But the harder they try, predictably, the faster the hangman's noose tightens around their necks.

The second, actually the third, prime suspect, Mr. Asabke Alangdi, is presently on the lam with his wife. The couple are alleged to have fled their home leaving their baby behind. There is an old American military maxim which tersely goes as follows: "You can run, but you can't hide." It is only a matter of time before the firm and certain brace of justice clamps tight-shut around the necks, waists and ankles of the Alangdis, we hope.

The fourth suspect has been classified by police investigators as an "abettor," an "accessory" or "facilitator" of Mr. Mahama's death. Mrs. Alangdi may well have been brought along by her husband to ensure that his fugitive's trail would be completely and perfectly covered. Now, I don't know where the status of this portion of the case stands, but I would not be the least bit surprised if a bounty is placed on the heads of the Alangdis. We need them in court to bring both justice and closure to the case.

As I have already observed several times in previous columns, the definitive ministration of justice on behalf of the Mahama Family would inure to the benefit of a badly riven and battered New Patriotic Party, because it is likely to bring a well-needed healing to many of the raw wounds provoked by this tragic incident that continue to slow down the onward movement towards the rebuilding of one party with a common destiny and the salubrious and noble objective of making Ghana, once again, work for the benefit of all. It would also, significantly, mark the first time in a long time that a political crime of the most repulsive and heinous nature would have been effectively and healthily solved. This is what a truly functioning democratic culture is inescapably about.

The search for justice for the Mahama Family and their well-wishers is non-negotiable. Justice must first be taken good care of, and then we would have forever to talk about peace and unity. We cannot have the Sword of Damocles hanging over our heads while we make glad-handed or half-hearted gestures towards party unity. That is sheer cant and hypocrisy! A well-meaning and critically thinking electorate will never forgive us, if we play "Peek-a-Boo" with justice and law and order.

Revelation that sulphuric acid of the same kind used in assassinating Mr. Adams Mahama was found in the clothing of Mr. Gregory Afoko, the first prime suspect, on the night of his arrest, and has been forensically affirmed as such, ought to be evidence enough for the Accra Human Rights Court to deny bail to the 53-year-old brother of NPP National Chairman Paul Afoko. We are also informed that a 28-paragraph affidavit submitted by the Attorney-General's Office also confirms that some containers used in the acid-dousing assassination of the former Upper-East NPP chairman have been found in both the houses of Messrs. Gregory Afoko and Issah Musah, the alleged purchaser of the deadly chemical weapon (See "Acid Found On Gregory Afoko" Daily Guide 7/30/15).

And so the steady and meticulous search for justice and fair play is right on course. Which is all well and good. And it is also for this reason that Mr. Musah ought not to have been granted the bail sum of GHC 20,000 (approximately $5,000), not even with ten sureties. I am also interested in the conclusions that both forensic experts and police investigators come up with in explanation of the alleged fresh wound that was found on the leg of Mr. Gregory Afoko. It is also rather annoyingly ironic that the man who savagely violated the human rights of his elder brother's political arch-nemesis should be petitioning the Human Rights Court for admittance to bail. What chutzpah!

We must also quickly add the fact that following his arrest, Mr. Gregory Afoko deliberately misled police investigators into believing that Mr. Asabke Alangdi, the second prime suspect, lived in his parents' house, thus buying time for Mr. Alangdi to be tipped off about the police being hot on his trail. And so by the time that police investigators were able to locate Mr. Alangdi's house, the latter had been informed by somebody in his parents' home to abscond. This is another important angle to the case that police investigators could focus on in the near future.

This is also where NPP National Chairman Paul Afoko comes in. And for those of our readers who may not readily recall, it was elder brother Paul who, located nearly 500 miles away from the Bolgatanga crime scene in Accra, could publicly and confidently vouch that his younger brother, Gregory, had been fast asleep at the time of Adams Mahama's assassination. Elder brother Paul had also insisted that the motorcycle by which Gregory could have traveled to the neighborhood of Mr. Mahama to commit the crime, had been found to be ice-cold by police investigators in the Afoko home. Well, now, we know that was all a lie! The NPP chairman may well have to be called in as a prime witness to the case.

For now, I am leaving out any specific mention of the name of the NPP General-Secretary because it does not seem to yours truly at this juncture that Mr. Paul Afoko's right-hand man at party headquarters has anything to do with Mr. Mahama's death, other than the fact of that one riotous incident at the Bolgatanga regional headquarters of the NPP, barely a fortnight prior to the death of Mr. Adams Mahama. We are studiously following the work of police investigators and judicial proceedings. Our discussions and analyses will continue when and as developments in the case warrant the same.

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