The late Major Maxwell Adam Mahama
There was total silence in an Accra High Court yesterday when video recordings of the gruesome murder of the late Major Maxwell Adam Mahama were played before it.
The six minutes and 26 seconds videos, which form part of the evidence presented to the court by the prosecution in the trial of 14 persons arraigned for the murder of the soldier, documented how his assailants attacked him.
The horrific video showed how some of the residents of Denkyira Obuasi in the Central Region, some of whom are now on trial, mistook the slain army officer for a ‘thief’ and beat him to death.
The soldier was on detachment duties in Denkyira Obuasi (now New Obuasi) in 2017 when he met his untimely death.
It began with some residents and the accused persons chasing the soldier, labeling him a ‘thief’.
The video then captured some of them attacking him with all sorts of weapons, including cement blocks, sticks, gun, cutlass and stones.
They then managed to pin him to a wall where they continued attacking him, and one of them at a point got close to him and punched him several times in the head and abdomen.
Some of his attackers, one of them in particular who was in a pink shirt, were then seen dropping cement blocks on him as he became motionless in the process, but his assailant continued to hit him, with some saying ‘he is not dead’.
Realizing that the soldier was motionless, they then dragged him to the outskirt of the town where they continued battering him and the chants of ‘he is not dead.’
They went on to strip him naked and the attacks continued although it appeared he was at this point lifeless and the man in pink shirt landed another cement block on him.
Identification
The case investigator, Chief Inspector Samuel Agyakwa, who tendered the video in evidence continuing his testimony, identified the accused persons who were seen in the video attacking the late soldier.
Led in his evidence in chief by Evelyn Keelson, a Chief State Attorney, the investigator identified Michael Anim, Charles Kwenin, Kofi Nyame, Akwesi Nyame and Kwesi Baa as the accused persons who attacked the soldier with cement blocks.
He also identified Kwesi Asante as the accused person who had the gun in the video, while Bernard and Joseph Appiah Kubi and Asamoah hit the deceased with a stick, which is one of the exhibits the prosecution is using in the trial.
Another accused person, Asamoah, was identified by Chief Inspector Agyakwa as the one who hit the deceased with a stone.
The investigator also identified Michael Anim, Kofi Nyame, and Kwame Tuffuor, all attacking the deceased in the video.
The court presided over by Justice Mariama Owusu, a Supreme Court judge sitting as a High Court judge, adjourned the case to April 19, 2021 for the investigator to continue his evidence in chief.
Trial
Fourteen suspects are currently before an Accra High Court for allegedly murdering Major Mahama in May 2017 at Denkyira Obuasi where he had led a 31-member military team sent to the town to guard the properties of C&G Mining Company against illegal mining activities in the area.
He was on a 20-kilometre walk when he was reportedly mistaken for an armed robber by some women from whom he had stopped to buy some snails.
There have been contrary reports that C&G was not having a permit to mine at the time but was being protected by soldiers, leading to the death of then Captain Mahama.
The women, who thought he was an armed robber after spotting his official pistol, reportedly called the assemblyman for the area to raise an alarm.
The assemblyman allegedly organised people in the town to lynch the soldier and later burned parts of his body.
The accused are facing three counts of abetment to murder, conspiracy to commit crime to wit murder, and murder, contrary to Section 46 of Act 29 (1960).
They have all pleaded not guilty to the charges.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak