Major Mahama trial: Witness laments spending 7 months in jail

• Posted on July 25, 2018
• by Ellsamwise King
• Comment

Mr. Kwame Adjei, a prosecution witness has told an Accra High Court that he spent seven months in Police and prison custody because of the late Major Maxwell Mahama case.

The witness who spoke Twi through an interpreter said, “l was first detained at Diaso Police Station and brought to Korle Bu police station and later sent to the Nsawam prison.”

Mr. Adjei who was being cross-examined by Mr. Patrick Anim Addo, Counsel for Bismarck Abanga and Kwadwo Anima said nobody told him he would be detained after he reported himself to the police.

The fourteen accused are standing trial for the death of the late Major Maxwell Mahama, an Officer of the 5th Infantry Battalion at the Burma Camp, who was on duty at Denkyira-Obuasi, when on May 29, 2017, he was lynched by some residents, who allegedly mistook him for an armed robber because he had a pistol in his back pocket.

The mob ignored his consistent plea that he was an officer of the Ghana Armed Forces.

The accused are William Baah, the Assemblyman of Denkyira Oboasi, Bernard Asamoah alias Daddy, Kofi Nyarko aka Abortion, Akwasi Baah, Kwame Tuffour, Joseph Appiah Kubi, Michael Anim and Bismarck Donkor.

Others are John Bosie, Akwasi Baah, Charles Kwaning, Emmanuel Badu, Bismarck Abanga and Kwadwo Anima.

On how the witness made a second statement on the police, the witness said it was at the Nsawam prison that he was interviewed on what he saw and what happened in the township of Denkyira-Obuasi.

The defense asked that “spending seven months in custody and being released, what did they tell you” and the witness said, “After my release l was told that they might call me to testify in court as a witness”.

When asked whether he (Mr. Adjei) was charged and arranged before the court the witness said yes, but was released after the docket was sent to the AG for advice.

In further cross-examination by Mr. Theophilus Donkor, who held brief for Seidu Nasiru, counsel for Kofi Nyarko and John Bosie asked the witness, how old he was and he said 33 years and mentioned the month and day of his birth but could not remember the year.

The Counsel put it to Mr. Adjei that the evidence he has given to the court that he met the late Major Mahama at Denkyira-Oboasi junction was an afterthought but the witness said that was incorrect.

Mr. Donkor said the notion painted in court by the witness that when he met the late major at the junction, he was running towards the crowd was also an afterthought but the 33-year-old said it was true.

The court presided over by Justice Mariama Owusu adjourned the case to 25th of July for further cross-examination.

At the last adjourned date, Mr. Adjei told the Court that the late Major Maxwell Mahama begged of him to pick him with his motorbike but he declined because of the gun the Major was holding.

‘l told Major Mahama to give me the weapon he is holding since l was afraid before l will allow him to board my motorbike and also because people were calling him a thief,’ he said.

Source: Graphic.com.gh