Gregory Afoko and Adams Mahama
An Accra High Court hearing the trial of Gregory Afoko, who allegedly murdered the Upper Eastern Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Adams Mahama, has heard that the police found a tracksuit with acid in the house of the accused person.
A prosecution witness, DSP Thomas Yaw Agbanyo, who was part of the police team that went to Afoko’s house to arrest him, told the court under cross-examination that police investigators, who searched the accused person’s house found the damaged tracksuit.
He said the acid on the tracksuit later matched the one that was poured on the deceased NPP official who sustained severe burns, leading to his death.
The witness, however, told the court that they did not find anything incriminating when they first visited Afoko’s residence to conduct preliminary search.
DSP Agbanyo, who is the seventh prosecution witness, ended his evidence-in-chief led by Mathew Amponsah, a Chief State Attorney yesterday.
He told the court that Gregory Afoko, upon his arrest, told the police that he and his group would “show” the deceased if he attempted to interfere in their activities.
He stated that Afoko said his group ‘Friends of Afoko’ will remain to resist all attempts by the deceased to obstruct their work.
Under cross-examination by private legal practitioner, Francis Gariba Apam, who was holding the brief of Osafo Buaben, asked the witness whether he wrote in his statement that the police did not find anything incriminating after a search at his residence.
The witness added that “we did the preliminary search at the house in his presence but we knew that he will not keep the acid in the house, knowing the course of action he had taken.
“After the investigation team took over we got to know that they found a tracksuit in his house and there was acid on it which later matched the one found at the crime scene,” DSP Agbano told the court.
Asked how he got to know that the tracksuit had been found in the accused person’s house, he said “I was the Public Affairs Officer of Bolgatanga so I was getting facts as the investigations were going on.”
“So what you are saying is that you were not at the scene when the tracksuit was found, the lawyer queried.
“It was the investigative team that found it, the witness added.
The lawyer asked the witness how many police officers stormed Afoko’s house to arrest him.
DSP Agbanyo mentioned Sergeant Benjamin Kusi, Lance Corporal Lambert Amenah, one Eric, a lady called Esther, the crime officer, Alex Frimpong and the photographer, whose name he could not recall, as those who arrested the accused person at his residence.
The court was thrown into laughter when the lawyer asked the witness whether he and the accused person chased women together.
DSP Agnayo disclosed that the accused was not a friend, saying “we did not chase women together. I only married from their area.
The jury asked of the whereabouts of the tracksuit, and the witness said he did not carry out the search but was sure it was with the investigator.
The jury also asked whether the police conducted any forensic examination on the tracksuit, to which the witness said he could not tell.
He was discharged by the court, presided over by Justice Lawrence L. Mensah.
The prosecution is expected to call another witness today.
By Gibril Abdul Razak