High Court to commence trial of Kombian on June 29
Johnson Kombian, a farmer and businessman, who allegedly shot and killed two policemen at Nyankpanduri in the Northern Region, was on Wednesday committed to stand trial at the High Court in Accra.
Kombian, who is being held for conspiracy to murder, and two counts of murder, is expected to appear before the court on June 29.
Kombian, who kept smiling in court, raised his hands and said in English that “I was not there when the thing happened. My Lord I am innocent.”
His plea was reserved. Kombian had earlier told the court that he wanted to speak Bimoba, a dialect spoken by an ethnic group in the Northern part of Ghana.
The District Magistrate’s court in Accra was unable to secure an interpreter in Bimoba at the last sitting, but when the trial resumed on Wednesday, the accused prayed the court that he would speak English.
His counsel, Mr George Asamaning, told the court that his client would speak English since he (counsel) had adequately prepared his client to speak English throughout the trial.
Mr Asamaning prayed the court to expunge issues boarding on language proposed earlier from its records.
Mrs Marian A. Appiah-Opare, Principal State Attorney, told the court that the accused lived at Nyankpanduri in the Northern Region, while the complainant Lance Corporal Osei Bonsu, a police officer, was stationed at Bukpurugu Police Station in the region.
She said on October 17, 2010, the complainant, and two other policemen, General Constable Prince Agyare and Constable Owusu Frimpong, were assigned to work at a barrier at the Nyankpanduri scrap, noted for robbery activities.
Mrs Appiah-Opare said the police officers, reported for duty at 0530 hours, and they saw that a bus en-route to Togo had driven pass the check point.
The court heard that the complainant on motorbike with registration number VR 736 V together with Constable Agyare and Frimpong, were attacked by Kombian and other persons when they reached a section of the road about 500 meters from the check point, and three miles from the Nyankpanduri township.
Kombian and his accomplices fired gunshots at the three police officers and they (police) sustained various degrees of injuries but the policemen managed to escape into a valley nearby.
Mrs Appiah-Opare said Constable Agyare made a distress phone call to the Bukpurugu Police Station for help, and fired shots at the direction of his hideout after he had attempted to secure a car to Nyankpanduri.
The prosecution said Constable Agyare joined his colleagues at their hideout but Kombian and his accomplices ambushed them, and fired indiscriminately and Constable Agyare was killed in the process while the others were found in a pool of blood.
Mrs Appiah-Opare said that when a team of policemen went to the scene, they found the three policemen in a pool of blood in a valley about seven feet deep.
She said Constable Agyare was pronounced dead on arrival at Nalerigu Baptist Medical Centre, and on October 21, 2010, Constable Frimpong also passed away.
Mrs Appiah-Opare said Lance Corporal Bonsu was transferred to the Police Hospital in Accra for further medical treatment.
She said 24 empty shells were retrieved at the crime scene, and post mortem reports on Constables Agyare and Frimpong indicated that they died of gunshots and hypovolemic shock.
The court heard that one month after the tragedy, the Ghana Police Service received information from the Togolese authorities that Kombian had been arrested and detained at Dapangu in Togo.
Mrs Appiah-Opare said the accused was escorted to Ghana and detained at the Criminal Investigation Department in Accra.
Kombian denied knowledge of the crime in a cautioned statement and said that some policemen arrested people amidst the firing of gunshots at Nyankpanduri on October 16, 2010, and he and wife and children fled to Togo.
Source: GNA