The late Major Mahama
A Chief State Attorney at the Office of the Attorney General, Evelyn Keelson, yesterday began addressing a seven-member jury hearing the case of 14 persons standing trial over the gruesome murder of the late Major Maxwell Mahama.
The prosecutor, in making a case for the prosecution, told the jury that none of the 14 persons have been able to put up defence against the extensive evidence led by the prosecution through its 14 witnesses.
She told the court and the jury that there was no doubt that the late solider is dead and his death was not as a result of a natural cause but through the brutal act of the accused persons.
“Major Mahama is dead. He did not die a natural death. He was lynched and we have brought these 14 persons to answer for the murder,” Mrs. Keelson told the court yesterday.
The prosecutor, in her address, replayed the video in which 13 of the accused persons were captured attacking the late soldier with all manner of weapons, including cement blocks, stones and clubs.
She told the jury that the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt that that the 14 accused persons were responsible for Major Mahama’s unlawful death.
She took the jury through the evidence presented by each of the prosecution witnesses and how some of them identified some of the accused persons and the roles they played in the death of the soldier.
The court, presided over by Justice Mariam Owusu, a Justice of the Supreme Court sitting an additional High Court judge, adjourned the case to October 23, for the prosecution to conclude its oral address.
Meanwhile, the court has warned that it will not wait for any defence lawyer who fails to show up for their turn to address the jury.
Major Mahama was the captain of a 31-member military team sent to Denkyira-Obuasi, now New Obuasi, to guard the properties of C&G Mining Company as a result of illegal mining activities in the area.
He was lynched in May 2017 at New Obuasi, in the Central Region, after he was mistaken for an armed robber.
William Baah, the then Assemblyman for the area, is standing trial for abetment of murder while the other 13 are facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder and substantive charge of murder.
They have all pleaded not guilty to the charges and have been in prison custody since the commencement of the trial in 2018.
The other accused persons are Bernard Asamoah, alias Daddy, Kofi Nyame aka Abortion, Charles Kwaning aka Akwasi Boah, Kwame Tuffour, Joseph Appiah Kubi, Michael Anim and Bismarck Donkor, John Bosie, Akwasi Asante, Charles Kwaning, Emmanuel Badu, Bismarck Abanga and Kwadwo Anima.
The Office of the Attorney General on May 16, 2022, closed its case in the trial of the 14 accused persons.
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.
Frances Mullen Ansah, a Chief State Attorney during one of the proceedings led the case investigator in evidence when the court played the horrifying videos which captured the accused persons lynching the deceased.
Eleven of the accused persons opened their defence and denied the charges against them while three; Kofi Nyame, Bismarck Abanga and Kwadwo Anima, waived their rights to mount a defence.
Although the accused persons were captured on video assaulting the deceased with all sorts of weapons, they either told the court that their weapons did not harm the late soldier or they were rather trying to rescue him from the angry mob, when they opened their defence.
Some chose not to open their defence at all.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak