The late Major Mahama
AN ACCRA High Court has indicated its decision to go on with the trial of 14 persons accused of murdering the late Major Maxwell Mahama, indicating that it is not inclined to wait for some of the lawyers who failed to file their written submissions of no case to answer.
The court, presided over by Justice Mariama Owusu, a Supreme Court judge, sitting as an additional High Court judge, had given the lawyers two weeks to file the submission on behalf of the accused persons after they indicated their decision to do so.
The court subsequently gave the prosecution two weeks thereafter to file its response to the submissions to be filed by the defence counsels.
But appearing before the court yesterday, Frances Mullen Ansah, a Chief State Attorney, indicated that they were yet to receive submissions from two of the lawyers hence their inability to file their response.
“We were hoping to incorporate their submissions in our response but we have not received submissions from Augustine Gyamfi and Theophilus Odonkor. This is because we wanted to respond adequate. We will file within the week,” she told the court.
Justice Owusu, who was not impressed with the turn of events, stated that it was not compulsory to file a submission of no case to answer, although the lawyers had indicated their intentions to do so.
She said the court gave the lawyers timelines within which to file their submissions, adding that the court is not inclined to wait for the lawyers, who were yet to comply with the court’s order.
She, therefore, adjourned the case to June 20, 2022, by which time the prosecution was to file its response to the submissions filed by the other three lawyers.
The Office of the Attorney General, on May 16, 2022, closed its case in the trial of the 14 persons who allegedly lynched the late Major Maxwell Mahama at Denkyira Obuasi (New Obuasi) in the Central Region in 2017.
Major Mahama was brutally lynched in May 2017, while on detachment duties with some military officers in Denkyira Obuasi.
He was the captain of the 31-member military team sent to the town to guard the properties of C&G Mining Company as a result of illegal mining activities in the area.
The 14 all pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against them although state prosecutors say the accused persons, except the then assemblyman of the area, William Baah, were captured in a video during the crime.
The prosecution during the presentation of its case called 14 witnesses who gave various accounts of what happened on the day and what they witnessed.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak