Bulldog
Another prosecution witness in the trial of Artiste Manager, Lawrence Nana Asiamah Hanson aka Bulldog has told an Accra Circuit Court that she sees the accused person’s retraction to be more of a justification of the alleged threat he made against the President.
“I wouldn’t say it was a retraction. I would rather say it was more of justifying what he said”, Mavis Abakle yesterday stated in response to a question by the accused person’s lawyer asking the witness whether she remembered hearing Bulldog retracting the statement.
Jerry Avenorgbo, counsel for Bulldog then asked the witness whether she was expressing an opinion about the fact that host of the show, Nana Ama Agyemang McBrown, had asked Bulldog to retract the same statement which he did.
“It is not an opinion of mine. That is what I see it to be”, the witness responded.
Bulldog is before the court for allegedly threatening that the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will not finish his four year tenure if he failed to pay Menzgold customers.
The third prosecution witness, Mavis Abakle led by the prosecutor, Simon Apiorsornu, tendered a witness statement which was adopted by the court presided over by Her Honour Evelyn Asamoah.
Counsel during the cross examination of the witness asked her whether the statement made by Bulldog pushed her to do anything negative and she said “personally no, but this Menzgold issue has affected a lot of people and once that statement was made it affects a lot of people.”
Lawyer: Did you hear or see that a group of persons attempted to breach the peace after the statement made on the show?
Witness: I have not heard or seen but I wouldn’t know if per that particular statement anyone attempted to take any violent action.
Lawyer: Has the peace of this country been destabilized after the statement made on the programme?
Witness: I am not in the right position to determine whether the peace has been breached.
Lawyer: I put it to you that you are not in any position at all to determine or perceive anything that occurred on that particular TV station on that day.
Witness: I agree, I am not in a position to determine neither am I here to determine that. I only acted as a concerned citizen that saw something that may destabilize the peace and sanity of the country and therefore, directed the appropriate bodies to investigate it.
Lawyer: And did it destabilize the peace and sanity of the country?
Witness: I still stand by my earlier submission that I am not in a position to determine the current peace and stability of the country.
Lawyer: I put it to you that you are being untruthful to this court.
Witness: I stand by everything that I said.
Lawyer: I further put it to you that everything in your witness statement with the exception of your identification and the accused, everything is untrue.
Witness: I beg to differ, my Lord and I wish to state that everything in the statement is nothing but the truth.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak