Major Mahama murder: Prepare to return your verdict on January 29 – Court to Jury

The High Court in Accra has fixed Monday, January 29, 2024, for summing up the case in which William Baah, the Assembly member of Denkyira Obuasi, and 13 others have been accused of lynching young military officer, Major Maxwell Adams Mahama.

What this means is that the fate of all the 14 accused persons would be decided by the seven-member jury on January 29.

In Court on Thursday, January 25, 2024 Counsel for the 13th and 14th accused, Patrick Anim Addo commenced his final address to the jury and is set to conclude on Monday, January 29.

On Monday, when the parties reconvened, Justice Mariama Owusu, a Justice of the Supreme Court sitting with additional responsibility as a High Court judge, said Counsel is to conclude his final address within the first hour.

The Court, consequent to that, will sum up the whole trial for the jury to retire and return their verdict on the same day.

“Case is adjourned Monday, January 29, 2024, for Counsel for A13&A14 (Patrick Anim Addo) to conclude his closing remarks or addresses,” Justice Owusu stated.

She said that on Monday she will do the summing-up, (direct the jury on the law and matters of facts).

Out of the 14 persons standing trial, three of them Kofi Nyame, (3rd Accused), Bismark Abanga, (13th Accused)’ and Kwadwo Anima, (14th Accused), all waived their rights not to mount a defence.

On Monday, June 5, 2023, lawyers of the 13th and 14th Accused persons led by Lawyer Patrick Anim Addo waived their clients' rights to give evidence, which meant that they had no evidence and closed their case.

The accused persons are William Baah, the Assembly member of Denkyira-Obuasi, Bernard Asamoah, alias Daddy, Kofi Nyame also known as Abortion, Charles Kwaning a.k.a Akwasi Boah, Kwame Tuffour, Joseph Appiah Kubi, Michael Anim and Bismarck Donkor.

The others are John Bosie, Akwasi Asante, Charles Kwaning, Emmanuel Badu, Bismarck Abanga and Kwadwo Anima.

While William Baah, the Assemblyman has pleaded not guilty to the charge of abetment, the remaining 13 have also denied the charges of conspiracy to commit murder and murder.

All of them are currently in lawful custody.

Fourteen persons are standing trial at the Accra High Court over the killing of Major Mahama, who was an officer of the 5th Infantry Battalion, at Burma Camp.

The late Major Mahama while on duty at Denkyira-Obuasi in the Central Region on May 29, 2017, some residents allegedly mistook him for an armed robber and lynched him, ignoring his persistent plea that he was an officer of the Ghana Armed Forces.

Brief facts:

The facts, presented by the prosecution, were that Major Mahama was the commander of a military detachment stationed at Diaso in the Upper Denkyira West District in the Central Region to check illegal mining activities.

At 8 am on May 29, 2017, Major Mahama, wearing civilian clothes but with his sidearm, left his detachment base for a 20-kilometre jog.

At 9:25 a.m., the military officer got to the outskirts of Denkyira Obuasi, where a number of women were selling foodstuffs by the roadside.

He stopped to interact with the women and even bought some snails, which he left in their custody to be taken up on his return from jogging.

While he was taking out money from his pocket to pay for the snails, the woman from whom he had bought the snails and a few others saw his sidearm tucked to his waist.

Soon after he left, one of the women telephoned the assembly member for Denkyira Obuasi to report what they had seen.

“Without verifying the information, the assembly member mobilised the accused persons and others, some now at large, to attack the military officer,” the prosecution stated.

It added that the mob met Major Mahama near the Denkyira Obuasi cemetery and, without allowing him to explain and identify himself, “attacked him with implements such as clubs, cement blocks, and machetes, killed him, and burnt a portion of his body”.