Woman believed to have set Captain Mahama's body ablaze arrested

A female suspect, said to be the woman, who was seen setting ablaze the body of late Captain Maxwell Adam Mahama’s, in the video evidence widely shared on social media has been arrested by the police in Kumasi.

On social media, majority have concluded that the said woman, was the one who set Captain Mahama's body ablaze.

Reports from Kumasi on Saturday morning say, the Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCOP Ken Yeboah has confirmed to him that a female suspect has been arrested.

According to the report, which quoted DCOP Yeboah as saying "the police have arrested "a couple of women" one of them they suspect to be the said female suspect in the video".

The police commander told Graphic Online’s correspondent that investigations are still ongoing to fish out the said suspect out of the number of women they have in their custody.

The police in their report to the media on Friday said a snail seller raised the false alarm, that the late Captain Maxwell Adam Mahama, was a suspected armed robber.

According to the police, Captain Mahama who was jogging, stopped to buy snails, and when he (Capt. Mahama) took money from his pocket to pay for the snails, the trader saw the pistol and reportedly informed the assemblyman of Denkyira Obuasi that the young military officer was an armed robber.

According to the police, without verifying the identity of Captain Mahama, the assemblyman and armed townsfolk accosted the military officer, gave him a chase, shot at him, and eventually pounced on him using cement blocks, clubs, among others, until he died around 10am on Monday.

Below is the statement by the police at Friday's press briefing on progress of investigations.

ADDRESS BY THE DIRECTOR - GENERAL CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION DEPARTMENT. DCOP/MR. BRIGHT ODURO ON PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN MAXWELL MAHAMA

CAPTAIN MAXWELL MAHAMA now deceased was the Commander of a Military Detachment stationed at Diaso in the Upper Denkyira District of the Central Region to check Galamsey activities. The Detachment is based at the outskirts of Diaso.

On Monday May 29, 2017 at about 8:00 am, the deceased left the Detachment Base for a 20km walk/jogging.

He was in civilian clothing but carried his sidearm. He jogged on the main asphalted Diaso-Dominase-Ayanfuri motor road.

He came through Agona Port Police Barrier. Jameso Nkwanta and Dankwakrom villages heading towards Dominase.

It has been established that at about 8:55am, the deceased in a whatsapp chat with a friend stated that, he was embarking on a 20km walk and that he started at 8.00am so he would get in touch later.

It is estimated that, between this time and 9:25 am he had walked about 10km to a place at the outskirts of Denkyira-Obuasi village where a number of women were selling food items by the road.

The deceased stopped to interact with the women and even bought some snails which he left with the women to pick up on his return from the walk.

While the deceased was taking out money from his pocket to pay for the snail, the woman from whom the deceased bought the snail and a few others saw the deceased's sidearm tucked to his waist.

Soon after he left the women, one of them (name withheld) telephoned the Assemblyman of Denkyira-Obuasi, William Baah to report what they had seen.

Without verifying the information, the Assemblyman mobilized the townsfolk to prepare to attack an armed robber who had been sighted by the women who sell at the outskirt of the town.

The Assemblyman called a motor rider who is popularly known in the town as “Komoko” and together with one other man called Kwasi Buah, a vulcanizer proceeded to confront the deceased.

The Assemblyman met the deceased near the Denkyira-Obuasi cemetery, which is about one-and- half kilometers away from the food stuff sellers and about the same distance from the place where the body of the deceased was found.

As soon as the Assemblyman and his two-man team spotted the deceased with a side arm, they accosted him without giving him the opportunity to identify himself.

By this time message had spread that an armed robber had been sighted and so other people had come around wielding all forms of implements and started attacking the deceased.

While the deceased was being attacked, he made efforts to explain his identity, while at the same time attempting to flee from his attackers.

Police Investigations have also established the following:

The deceased jumped unto different motor bikes in an attempt to escape from the attack but to no avail.

He also attempted to escape by jumping unto a timber truck (details withheld) by entering through the passenger side but the attackers fired and shattered the windscreen causing him to fall off.

There were sporadic shooting from the attackers.

The attackers used implements including clubs, cement blocks and machetes.

He was finally killed at about 10:00 am.

These findings indicate that the deceased left his base at about 8 am of Monday May 29. 2017 and was killed at about 10 am of the same day.

Police actions taken so far include the arrest of 16 suspects.

7 out of whom have been remanded by the Court to police custody and the rest to be presented in Court on Monday June 5, 2017 together with any suspects that may be arrested in the course of the weekend.

The seven who have been remanded are:

1. William Baah

2. Bismark Donkor

3. Philip Badu

4. Kofi Nyame

5. Anthony Amoah

6. Kofi Badu

7. Yaw Annor

The other arrested persons are as stated below.

Some were attempting to escape arrest to other places and were intercepted, while others were arrested from other places across the country, including as far as Sunyani.

8. Dolly Kormla

9. Domeh Francis

10. Sonu Mawunyo

11. Sonu Emmanuel

12. Ernest Ally

13. Kojo Mfum

14. Kwasi Buah

15. Issah Manu

16. Prince Amponsah

We have collected a number of evidence which have either been processed or are being processed according to due process.

In conclusion our investigations are focused on identifying all persons whose actions caused the death of the deceased.

To find out what specific actions were taken by each individual and how the actions are linked to the killing as well as the intent of the actions.