Who do you believe in Major Mahama's murder, his wife or varied reports?

Following the unfortunate lynching leading to the death of the young and promising Military officer, Major Adam Mahama, varied account have been given by a number of people and institutions involved in the matter. This had led me, and many Ghanaians I believe, into thinking who really is telling us the truth and who's account should we believe.

In all these varied account, I have kept faith in that of the Police and the Military who are involved in the investigation of the matter. What I find strange however, which has really got me to write this piece on the matter is a statement I heard the beautiful wife of the late Major make in her tribute to her husband at the forecourt of the state house last Friday. A critical evaluation of the first paragraph in that statement suggest to me the account of both the Police and the Military many not be entirely accurate and same cannot be trusted.

In the first paragraph of that tribute, Barbara stated, and I quote;

"Yo, what was for breakfast" was the last message I sent you on Monday at 9:12am after we spoke at 6am and you said you were going to have your bath. For the first time in my life, I experienced a ripping heart on Monday night, I work up to throw up, I had tummy issues too, I just felt sick."

I will deal with this statement vis-à-vis what we have heard so far but first let me attempt a recap of all that we have heard from the security Agencies, residents and some individuals connected with this matter.

First, the account by the Military, communicated to us by its Head of Public Affairs, Col. Aggrey-Quarshie is that, the late Major had gone for jogging in the morning from his base at Diaso where he had been posted as the Head of the detachment fighting the Galamsey menace affecting our country. It was on his jogging that some residents of Denkyira-Boasi accosted and lynched him to death when he got there.

Some of the residents, particularly those involved in the lynching we understand, thought he was a thief after they had found a Gun on him on that faithful day when he approached some women to ask for direction. We are told the town had suffered Armed robbery attacks the night before the incident and so the women upon seeing a gun on him called their Assemblyman to inform him and that it was this Assemblyman who organized the youth in the town to inflict such harm on the young soldier.

Other persons both in and out of the community have suggested that, the claim by the residents that they thought he was an Armed robber cannot be true and that his death was premeditated and carried out exactly as planned. They suggest the late Major had been invited for a meeting by some people who are said to be involved in the Galamsey activities including the Assemblyman for them to get him soften his stands in his fight against the Galamsey activities. It is at this meeting that they deliberately accosted him and lynched him to death under the guise of mistaken identity for a robber.

The final account I will like to speak to is that of the Police. On the first day the Police presented the first set of suspects in the murder case to the Circuit court in Cape-Coast, it stated among other things in its charge sheet that; The late Solider had gone for a jogging from his base at Diaso in the Upper Denkyira West District where he was serving as the Head of the Military Detachment deployed there to fight Galamsey. Whiles at the jogging, he got to Denkyira-Boasi where he stopped to buy some snails. It is when he was taking money from his pocket to pay for the snails that the Snail seller saw the Gun on him and quickly informed the Assembly man who also organized his people to beat the 'Snail Buyer' because they thought he was an Armed robber.

Having given a background to his death and the various account given thus far, I shall proceed to deal with the cracks of my statement which has to do with the comments of the late soldier's wife, Barbara.

Barbara in that tribute said she spoke to her husband at 6am on that faithful Monday where he told her(Barbara) he was going to take his bath. Isn't this surprising?. I would have thought, that jogging usually will start at dawn around 5am and end around 7am in order to allow you prepare for work especially when it is a Monday, the first working day of the week.

This sounds very strange and a few questions comes to mind amongst which are;

1. Was he taking his bath before he goes on his jogging?

2. Was he going to take another bath after the jogging before going to work?

3. Is it a usual practice to have a bath as late as 6am before going for jogging on a working day like Monday?

4. Did he tell his wife while speaking to her that morning that he would be going for jogging after he's done taking his bath.

5. If he did, was the wife expecting him back from the jogging before 9am for which she sent a text message to him to find out what he had for breakfast?

6. Could this issue of him going for jogging be true at all?

7. From the reports, the late Major was killed between the hours of 10am and 11am. This makes the situation much interesting. What was somebody who was suppose to go to work doing in the town as late as 10am if he indeed went for jogging?

8. For an Officer who was the Head of the detachment, didn't he get any of his junior officers to join him on his jogging, or could he not have 'Commanded' his Junior officers to join him for jogging whether they liked it or not because of the health benefits they stood to gain?

9. How come he was the only person who went for the jogging at such a long a long distance and stayed there as late as 9/10am?

10. We are told by the Police he was buying snails. How was somebody who went on jogging going to carry snails back to his base?

11. Was he going to stop jogging and walk because he's holding a bag containing snails or that he was still going to jog back home while holding the snails? Does this sound right in your ears?

12. How come a military officer, who is also a sport man we are told, wear a jeans trouser for a jogging?
The footage in the video of his lynching clearly showed he was in jeans. Isn't it surprising he wore jeans for a jogging?

All these are relevant and critical questions that needs to be answered by those involved in the investigations if we are to take their account of the incident seriously.

Until I heard the wife speak at his burial ceremony, I was inclined to believe the account given by the Police in this matter. I did so for the reasons that, they are the Constitutionally mandated body to carry out investigations into such matters which they did, and continue to do in this matter and also because this account was not something they put in the media but in the law courts. It showed the seriousness and believe they had in the investigations they did.

I am however compelled at this stage, justifiable so, to review my stance in believing the account of the Police and the Military giving the comments of the wife of the late Major and my analysis of same thereof.

I am of the firm believe that we would not get the actual facts and truth behind the death of this promising soldier if the police did not avert their minds to these issues. I will thus recommend to them to speak to the wife if they had not done so before, analyse her statement of her interaction with the husband on the morning of that faithful Monday and seek to find answers to the many questions I have asked in this piece if they really want to know the circumstances which led to his death.

I must also say that, these seemingly inconsistencies in the accounts given so far, and my hesitation to believe wholely in same, does not in anyway justify the dastardly act of the town folks, neither does it offer any defense for the accused in the ongoing trial in court.

In concluding my statement, I would like to join the very many well meaning Ghanaians in condemning the perpetrators of this dastardly act which claimed the life of Major Maxwell Adam Mahama and entreat all of us to learn a lesson from this and say, NEVER AGAIN, to MOB JUSTICE.

I will further want to extend my sincere sympathies to the Wife of the late Soldier; Barbara, his children, his father, his mother, his family and the Ghana Armed Forces.

May this never happen in our beloved country, Ghana.