*TOP ARMY *

*OFFICER*

*EXPOSED *

*..The Inside Story Of A Soldier’s Desperate Attempt To Cover-Up Murder*

*By Larry Dogbey*

A-three-year-painstaking investigation carried out by this reporter has revealed the complicity of a top army officer in the brutal torture and murder of CPP’s Northern Regional Chairman, Alhaji Issah Mobila in December 2004. However, he is not one of the suspects on trial for the murder and this has left some soldiers at the Kamina Barracks in Tamale who are aware of his role with lingering questions.

Lt. Col. William Omane-Agyekum, former Commanding Officer (CO) of the Sixth Infantry Battalion at Tamale in the Northern Region, is alleged to have received orders from the Office of the then Vice President Aliu Mahama to fetch and detain Alhaji Issah Mobila. Military sources say he carried out the orders and shortly thereafter, Alhaji Mobila was reported dead.

Lt. Col. Omane-Agyekum’s Unit desperately attempted to cover up the murder by creating the impression that Alhaji Mobila fell, collapsed and died in a military guardroom.

But military sources say Lt. Col. Omane-Agyekum, upon discovering that his boys had “roughed” Mobila up, quickly ordered the torture squad to take him to the Tamale Medical Reception Centre for the military and log his name as a patient.

The soldiers forced the only nurse on duty at the time to register Mobila into the Admissions and Discharge Book, and dumped the almost-dead body in the facility.

However, a civilian medical doctor who was in-charge of the facility, Dr. Fred Attipoe got extremely furious about the machinations of the unit commander, and called him to the facility. Hours later, Lt. Col. Omane-Agyekum and his adjutant stormed the facility and took away the corpse together with the Admissions and Discharge Book.

The book was later returned but without the page where Issa Mobila’s name was written.

Three soldiers namely; Corporal Appiah Yaw with regimental number 187484, Private Eric Modzaka with regimental number193364 and Private Seth Goka with regimental number 193366, who are presently on trial have always maintained they are “victims of circumstances”.

Some military officers who claim knowledge of the incidents that led to the murder told this reporter that even if Lt. Col. Omane-Agyekum played no part in the murder, he must bear ultimate responsibility for the actions of his boys and also face prosecution because he headed the unit that is alleged to have tortured Issah Mobila to death.

Lt. Col. Omane-Agyekum is rather enjoying a normal life and currently, at Burma Camp as Deputy Director in the Office of the Director of Civilian Establishments in Accra.

Soon after the barbaric incident, a ceremony was hurriedly organized, and Lt. Col. Omane-Agyekum quickly made to hand over to one Lt. Col. Aphour, after which he was whisked away to a peacekeeping operation to cool off. Later, he was brought down to Teshie Staff College, whilst the three soldiers were left in a military guardroom.

Military sources told this reporter that in accordance with military practice, as the commanding officer, Lt. Col. Omane-Agyekum would have been informed about the arrival of a high profile suspect in his unit as his name would have been entered into the book containing the names of inmates in the guardroom.

He would also have to inform his commandant in Kumasi in-charge of the Northern Command about the inmate in his custody.

More so, military officers, who are familiar with the Kamina Barracks in Tamale where Alhaji Mobila was killed, said Lt. Col. Omane-Agyekum cannot plead innocence over the murder since the guardroom where the torture took place is just steps away from his office and would have heard the beatings, hence he must also be questioned.

Aside, Lt. Col. William Omane-Agyekum, the then Unit Military Intelligence Officer, Duty Officer, the duty warrant officer with the unit at the time according to the officers must all be questioned.

Lt. Col. Omane-Agyekum, has cleverly avoided questions on the case. Sometime ago, he sent a text message to this reporter asking; “Is this not b4 the court? Can’t talk about it. Thanks.” This was after frantic efforts including a visit to his office, then at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College at Otu Barracks at Teshie, to get some answers.

The slain CPP chairman was in Police Custody after voluntarily reporting himself to the Northern Regional Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) in the company of a friend Abdul-Latif Saka-Naa, to enquire why his car had been impounded following an allegation that he (Alhaji Mobila) had supplied arms and ammunition to some youth in Tamale to foment trouble in the Metropolis.

The BNI however, handed over Alhaji Mobila to the Northern Regional Police Command who took him to the Police Headquarters and later released him to soldiers who took him Kamina Barracks where he was tortured to death.

A confidential report in the custody of this reporter reveals the kind of special VIP treatments that the murder suspects were secretly given even whilst in military guardroom in Tema after they were airlifted from Tamale to Michel Camp in Tema.

The confidential report, prepared by the Ghana Armed Forces Counseling Team (CT), after a secret meeting with the murder suspects in Michel Camp in Accra, disclosed that the three soldiers maintained that they are “victims of scapegoating and circumstances”. According to the report, “The detained soldiers feel unhappy about the fact that they were victims of scapegoating and circumstances”.

Explaining their actions, the soldiers accused of yet the most barbaric murder since Ghana returned to democratic rule, said that during the time Mobila was killed, they were suffering from work fatigue because “instead of a-day-in day- out performance duty, they were deployed for twelve days nonstop i.e. from the 1st to 12th of December. They thought that the continuous deployment contributed to their detention because their predicament occurred during the mentioned period”.

The report dated September 6, 2006, and signed by one Major P.K. Hometowu, Military Counselor, said the three soldiers expressed “constant feeling of desperation, hatred, hopelessness, and depression in the guardroom.”

* *“The CT urged them not to be discouraged, or have suicidal thoughts, or become fugitives but as soldiers, they should remain calm, loyal, and avoid mindsets for their own mental health e.g. having bad thoughts about High Command or harming themselves in detention because High Command did not want them to suffer unnecessarily,” the report said.* *