Michael Anim, one of the 14 persons standing trial for the gruesome lynching of Major Maxwell Mahama at Denkiyra Obuasi in the Central Region, has told an Accra High Court that the deceased had no gun on him when he searched his pocket.
Although he was captured in a video landing multiple blows on the deceased, he said he only landed a blow on the deceased and retreated after the deceased told him that he was an army officer and not an armed robber as the town folks presumed.
His testimony slightly contradicts that of some other accused persons who had indicated that the late solider had a gun on him when he was apprehended by the residents who mistook him for an armed robber.
William Baah, the former Assemblyman, for instance told the court that the deceased pointed a gun at him when the soldier approached him.
He said he got scared and decided to report the incident to the police but by the time he and the police got to where he had met the deceased, he had been lynched.
But Michael Anim, yesterday told the court that when he arrived at the crime scene, he was told the deceased was a soldier so he got closer and landed a blow on him.
“Someone said he had a gun on him, so I reached to his pocket to search but there was no gun on him. So, I insisted since he said he was not an armed robber we should take him to the police,” the accused told the court in his evidence-in-chief.
Michael Anim who is facing conspiracy, abetment and murder charges told the court that the town folks at the crime scene did not agree to his suggestion that the deceased be sent to the police station since he said he was a soldier and not an armed robber.
He said he initially brought his vehicle closer to the deceased and attempted to put him in the vehicle but retreated realising that the attacks on him continued and they might end up beating him too.
The accused, while under cross-examination by Frances Ansah, a Principal State Attorney, denied hitting the deceased with a cement block although he had stated so in his statement to the police.
“When I got there, I lifted a cement block but I didn’t throw it at him because I did not know who he was,” he responded.
He, however, retracted his statement and indicted that although he was captured in a video carrying a cement block, he threw it at the deceased but it did not hit him.
Justice Mariama Owusu, a Supreme Court Judge sitting as an additional High Court Judge, adjourned the case to March 27, 2023, for continuation.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak