The sixth prosecution witness in the trial of 14 persons alleged to have murdered Major Maxwell Mahama at Denkyira Obuasi (now New Obuasi) has turned to be a 14-year-old girl.
The witness (name withheld), a form two junior high school (JHS) pupil, has been telling the court how his uncle, Akwesi Asante, who is one of the accused persons, came to their house to pick his father’s gun.
Led in her evidence-in-chief by Evelyn Keelson – a chief state attorney – the witness told the court that she returned home on the day of the incident to pick her ‘pocket money’ she left home.
She said when she got home there was nobody around but after she had entered the room, she saw Akwesi Asante entering the room.
“When I was going to school, I didn’t take money so when I came home there was nobody home. When I entered the room to take the money, I saw uncle Akwesi Asante entering the room. He picked my father’s gun and I asked him where he was taking the gun to for two times but he didn’t mind me so I locked the door and went to school,” the witness told the court.
The witness who told the court that she gave a statement to the police in relation to the matter, told her father about how her uncle came for his gun in his absence.
She said her father later went to the Diaso police station to report the matter.
The witness was asked to identify the said uncle, and she pointed at Akwesi Asante who is the 10th accused person.
Under cross-examination by Patrick Anim Addo, lawyer for Bismarck Abanga and Kwadwo told the court that it had been long since she gave her statement to the police.
She said she told the police in her statement that her father’s gun was not working because her father said it didn’t fire anytime he used it in the bush.
She told the court that her uncle, Akwesi Asante used to come for the gun to kill pigs but he was not coming for it anymore because it was not working.
She said the accused usually needed her father’s permission before coming for the gun. She said he also came for the gun when her father was not around.
She added that on May 29, 2017, when the accused person came for the gun, it wasn’t working
The court presided over by Justice Mariama Owusu, a Court of Appeal judge, adjourned the matter to February 12, 2019, for further cross-examination.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak