The Ghana Police Service has said it is not holding any 12-year-old boy in custody in connection with the lynching of Major Maxwell Mahama.

Acting Public Affairs Director of the Police, DSP Sheila Buckman said on Wednesday, June 14 that “the boy is not with the police … and has not been detained.”

This is in response to calls by Child Rights International for the minor, who is said to have taken part in the lynching, to be given a fair juvenile trial.

Bright Appiah, Chief Executive of the NGO, said on Tuesday June 13 at a press briefing that their checks had revealed the minor was not at any of the juvenile remand centres and expressed worry that he may have been detained along with adults.

But DSP Buckman explained that: “The boy was reported by the Ashanti Regional Police as having been arrested and per our procedure, we had to interrogate and do some few checks to connect persons arrested to the murder before we detain them”.

“However, from police checks, the boy was not supposed to have been detained and so we are not holding him as a suspect”.