l didn’t see late Major Mahama as an armed robber – Witness

Madam Esther Tawiah, a trader in snails and a Prosecution witness, has told an Accra High Court that, she called the Assemblyman not because she thought the Late Major Maxwell Mahama was an armed robber.

The witness in the trial of the alleged murderers of the late Major Mahama said she called William Baah; the Assembly Member for the area because of his position in the community and not because “l think the deceased is an armed robber.”

Madam Tawiah who spoke twi through an interpreter, said during cross-examination that it was not the first time she had called the Assembly Member and that she sometimes call him because he runs a store, where villagers buy their stuffs.

Mr Bernard Shaw, a counsel for Baah and others asked, whether she had heard of any armed robbery attack in the area and the witness said yes, adding that there was an armed robbery attack, some few days before the late Mahama’s death.

The defence asked, whether, there had been any report to the Police and has the Police engaged the residents on these robbery attacks but she said no, and that where she lives there had been no such engagement.

“I was scared, when l saw the gun hanging on the late Major’s waist,” she said.

Mr Shaw further asked, whether, when the incident happened the villagers were scared knowing that soldiers were coming to the community to avenge  the death of their colleague and she answered in the affirmative.

Mr Patrick Anim Addo, another counsel for some of the accused asked, whether, the witness would blame herself for what happened on May 29, 2017 and she answered in the affirmative.

When asked, whether she knew where she was sent to while in Accra, the witness said that was her first time travelling to Accra, so she could not recollect where the Police took her and the husband when they arrived in Accra from Sunyani.

She said they were taken to the Police Headquarters where her caution statement was read to her and after that, “my husband and l slept in a house after leaving the Headquarters.”

Initially, there was a long silence from the witness when the defence asked, who owned the house they slept in but she said she could not remember the name but later said it belonged to a native of the community.

It was at this point that, the court presided over by Justice Mariama Owusu, asked the witness to be free and tell the court, what she knew about the case, rather than holding on to useful information, adding, “Lawyers have their own means of getting information from a witness, so you just tell the court what you know.”

The witness told the court that, the following day, she and the husband went to the Headquarters, where they were told, they were not going to be charged and were asked to go away saying, “We took our own transportation back to our village.”

The court has since discharged the witness and adjourned the case to Tuesday, 3 July.

Fourteen persons are standing trial at the Accra High Court for the death of the late Major Mahama, an Officer of the 5th Infantry Battalion at the Burma Camp, who was on duty at Denkyira-Obuasi, when on May 29; some residents, who allegedly mistook him for an armed robber, lynched him.

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

The accused are William Baah, the Assemblyman of Denkyira Obuasi, 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.

Source: GNA