Drama In Court

Sunyani -- DRAMA unfolded at the Techiman Circuit Court yesterday when an irate mob numbering about 100 threatened to lynch a Techiman-based legal practitioner for defending a 62-year old man, Charles Osebu, who was standing trial for allegedly murdering their kinsman.

After a High Court judge, Mr Erasmus Gyinae, who presided, had ordered that Osebu be remanded in prison custody until May 5, 2005, Mr Owusu Agyemang, counsel for the accused, pleaded with the judge to grant his client bail because of his age and also because he was a diabetic.

The counsel?s plea for bail for the accused sparked off reaction from the mob who rushed to the courtroom to lynch him but the judge ordered the police to restrain them.

The police quickly restored law and order for proceedings to continue.

The disturbances compelled the judge to close proceedings for the day thereafter and when Lawyer Agyemang was leaving the courtroom, the mob who had ?ambushed? him, physically attacked him and the policemen on duty had to call for reinforcement to rescue the lawyer, whom they escorted safely to his chambers.

The facts of the case as presented by the prosecutor, Chief Inspector S.Y. Jebuni, were that on April 21 2005, the deceased, Yong Anaa, a 34-year-old Techiman-based truck pusher, drank an overdose of herbal concoction that made him to develop runny stomach.

Sensing danger that he might disgrace himself if he went to work that day, he decided to stay closer to a public place of convenience at Abaamu, a suburb of Techiman, in order to ease himself anytime he felt like doing so.

Osebu?s wife, a pito brewer near the public place of convenience, who did not understand why Anaa should sit near the facility for a long time, subjected him to an avalanche of questions and he answered all of them.

In one instance, Anaa could not enter the facility itself but squatted in front of the building to ease himself.

Osebu, who was then at his wife?s working place and an accomplice, Kwadwo Obeng, 24, who is on the run, attacked Anaa for easing himself outside the public place of convenience and brutally assaulted him until he became unconscious. They then left him to his fate.

When the deceased regained consciousness, he reported the matter to the Techiman Police. While being questioned on the incident, the policemen on duty realised that Anaa was bleeding profusely from the right ear so they issued him with a medical form to receive immediate medical attention at the Holy Family Hospital.

As the deceased had no money to bear the hospital expenses, he went home and died the following day. The police managed to arrest Osebu for interrogation and prosecution but when Obeng heard that his friend had been apprehended, he fled Techiman for an unknown destination.

Meanwhile, the court has issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Obeng.

The judge also ordered the police to produce a post-mortem report from the hospital to ascertain the cause of death of the deceased during the case?s next hearing date on May 5, 2005.