The late Major Maxwell Mahama
Kojo Nfum, aka Agya Koo, a fuel seller, told an Accra High Court on Wednesday that the late Major Maxwell Mahama pleaded for mercy when some residents of Denkyira-Obuasi in the Central Region attacked him.
The fourth prosecution witness said he saw blood oozing from the head of the late Mahama who later became motionless.
The witness, who was led to give his evidence-in-chief by Evelyn Keelson, a Senior State Attorney, stated that a police van later conveyed the body of the late Major Mahama.
The witness, who gave his testimony in Twi through an interpreter, said he went to sell his fuel at a nearby village and when he got to Nkwantanan upon his return, the residents told him there was a thief in Denkyira-Obuasi.
He said he rode the motorbike to the village to assess the situation and on his way he saw two men chasing Major Mahama.
The witness said they were carrying guns and firing at the late Major Mahama.
“When I met him (Maj. Mahama) he asked me to carry him on his motorbike but initially one Kwame Adjei, a witness in the case, had wanted to pick him on his motorbike but one Amankwah threatened to shoot him.”
The witness said the late Major Mahama jumped onto his motorbike and as they were going, they hit a bump and both of them fell off the motorbike.
He said the deceased jumped onto a moving timber truck.
He said it was at this juncture that Amankwah and one Akwasi Boah asked him to get down but he refused.
They fired a shot but the bullet hit the windscreen of the truck.
He said one Akwasi Boah went for the gun from Amankwah and when the late Major Mahama fell into a pit, one Akwasi Asante fired a bullet into the head and hand of late Major Mahama.
“I also saw Kofi Nyarko, aka Abortion, using stick and concrete block to hit him,” he added.
Mr. Nfum, who is a motor rider, said Bernard Asamoah, alias Daddy and another boy, also hit the head of Major with sticks and concrete blocks.
During cross-examination, George Bernard Shaw, counsel for William Baah, Bernard Asamoah, Akwasi Boah, Bismarck Donkor, Akwasi Asante and Emmanuel Badu, put it to the witness that he fled the area to Techiman in the Brong Ahafo Region.
He said on the streets of Techiman, he was making phone call but unknowingly, a police detective was eavesdropping on him.
The witness said he was subsequently arrested and transported to the Police Headquarters and kept at hotel for two months and two weeks.
Asked whether he had decided to implicate others to enable him to gain his freedom, the witness answered in the negative.
Defence Counsel suggested to the witness that he ran away from his hometown to escape arrest.
But Mr Nfum said, “My Lord everyone in the village was running for our dear lives.”
The court, presided over by Justice Mariama Owusu, adjourned to Monday, November, 19 for further cross-examination of the witness.
Fourteen persons are standing trial at the Accra High Court for the murder of the late Major Mahama, an Officer of the 5th Infantry Battalion at the Burma Camp, who was on duty at Denkyira-Obuasi.
On May 29 some residents, who allegedly mistook him for an armed robber, lynched him.
The mob allegedly ignored his persistent pleas that he was an officer of the Ghana Army.
GNA