Gregory Afoko
The second trial of Gregory Afoko who allegedly poured acid on the Upper East Regional Chairman of the NPP, Adams Mahama, leading to his death, commenced at an Accra high court on Wednesday with the prosecution calling its first witness.
Afoko together with Asabke Alangdi have been charged with two counts of conspiracy and murder in the Adams Mahama incident on May 2015.
Tofic Mutala, the first prosecution witness, yesterday told the court that Afoko and Asabke were responsible for the late Mr. Mahama’s death.
According to him, Mr. Mahama, on his dying bed, had told him (witness) that should he die, it was Afoko and Asabke who killed him by pouring the substance on him.
Led in his evidence-in-chief by Marina Appiah Opare, a Chief State Attorney, Mutala told the court that on the day the former Upper East Regional Chairman of NPP was murdered, he had gone to a construction site where he was putting up a new hotel on the Bolga-Tamale road.
He said he met the late Mahama at the construction site and supervised the workers till about 6:00pm.
The witness told the court that he and the deceased stayed at the construction site after the workers had gone home because the late Mahama had scheduled a meeting with the NPP youth of Bawku who were staying in Bolgatanga.
He said because there was light out in town, they rented the conference room of Ex-Tee Hotel where the supposed meeting took place.
He said the meeting ended at about 10:30pm and they both returned to the construction site where the late Mahama made them place calls to the regional executives of the party to find out if they were aware of a meeting the next day, and said they left for home at about 11:00pm.
Tofic told the court that upon reaching home, he received a call and when he answered, he noticed that it was the wife of the late Mahama who told him to rush to the regional hospital because something had been poured on the deceased.
“When I got to the hospital, I saw the late Mahama lying on a bed which was wet because they had poured water on him.
He said the deceased was in so much pain and was wailing as his skin peeled off due to the substance poured on him.
He said the deceased upon hearing his voice asked him to get close and told him he (late Mahama) knew he was going to die and that it was Afoko and Asabke who killed him, they poured the substance on him.
He added that the late Mahama said he did not want to die without telling him about those who killed him.
“I tried to encourage him that he would not die and that even if anything should happen to him I knew the Afoko and Asabke that he was talking about so he should not worry. He said I should take care of his wife and his children when he dies,” Tofic testified.
Stephen Sowah Charway, who held the brief of Osafo Buabeng for Afoko, began cross-examining the witness by asking him how far the Ex-Tee hotel was from the construction site of the deceased and the witness said it was a street that separated them.
He also asked the witness what time Hajia Zeinabu, wife of the deceased, called him, and he said it was just when he got home and was about to undress.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak