Court decides on prosecution’s request

Thursday, December 16, 2010 (Page 51)

THE state’s request to reopen its case in the trial of 15 persons accused of murdering the Overlord of Dagbon, Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II, will be decided by the Accra Fast Track High Court on Friday.
The state is expected to call five witnesses should its request be granted by the court, presided over by Mr Justice E. K. Ayebi.
The court fixed the date after counsel for the accused persons, Mr Philip Addison, had advanced his arguments which stated, among others, that the state had not satisfied the court on the charges preferred against the accused persons, for which reason it was coming up with the new application to drag on the case.
According to him, the prosecution had failed to demonstrate with concrete evidence why it must be allowed to reopen its case and for that reason the court should not grant the wish.
The lead prosecutor, Mr Wiredu, had closed the case for the prosecution on November 5, 2010 but later indicated its intention to reopen it.
An affidavit in support of the prosecution’s request to reopen the case deposed to by the Director of Operations at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) at the Police Headquarters, DCOP Robert Ayalingo, said he supervised investigations and that as of October 2010 the police had the evidence that they were now seeking to introduce.
It said DCOP Ayalingo supervised investigations into the murder of the late Ya-Na Andani and stated that during investigations, the name of Nsoh kept cropping up and further investigations revealed that Yakubu Mohammed, alias Anafo, had, among other things, recorded a message from Alhassan Braimah, the sixth accused person, on his handset.
The message was to be given to Nsoh, whom Alhassan claimed had given him and Yakubu some military training in Togo, after Yakubu had refused to give him (Alhassan) Nsoh’s phone number.
In the recording, Alhassan Braimah, who has been charged with one count of conspiracy, was alleged to have confessed to killing the Ya-Na.
According to the prosecution, the message on the phone constituted a confession statement and was very significant to the case.
In a sharp response to the prosecution’s application to reopen the case, Mr Addison argued that there were only two people involved in the so-called recording, namely, Anafo and Braimah and, therefore, if the investigator said the name of Nsoh kept cropping up, his name might have been given to the investigator by Anafo.
“There is no information given to the court that there was any difficulty in getting the said Anafo and Nsoh who is alleged to be resident in Lome,” Mr Addison said.
He said there was complete lack of due diligence on the part of the prosecution because the evidence it now sought to adduce had been available to it at all material times since the trial began.
“Is the prosecution saying they have a recording of Braimah in which he is alleged to have confessed to the crime? Alhassan has been charged with conspiracy and not murder,” Mr Addison pointed out.
He said for the prosecution to say it had a confession from Braimah indicated that it was bringing a fresh case altogether when it had already called 12 witnesses in the case.
“To reopen the case and call five more witnesses means the prosecution seeks to contradict the 12 witnesses called so far,” Mr Addison said, and further argued that Braimah was not on trial for murder and so any alleged self confessions would further lead to embarrassment and a delay of the trial.
He further argued that Braimah was also not mentioned at the Wuaku Commission at all, adding that the alleged recording was done at a time Braimah was not under any investigations and, therefore, it could not amount to a confession statement.
The prosecution has so far called 12 witnesses in the case in which the 15 persons are standing trial for playing various roles resulting in the murder of the Ya-Na.
The accused persons are Iddrisu Iddi, alias Mbadugu; Alhaji Baba Abdulai, alias Zohe; Kwame Alhassan, alias Achiri; Mohammed Abdulai, alias Samasama; Sayibu Mohammed; Alhassan Braima and Zakaria Yakubu, alias Zakaria Forest, who is currently on the run.
The rest are Mohammed Habib Tijani, the former District Chief Executive of Yendi; Baba Ibrahim, alias Baba Zey; Alhassan Mohammed, alias Mohammed Cheampon; Mohammed Mustapha; Shani Imoro; Yakubu Yusif, alias Leftee; Hammed Abukari Yussif and Abdul Razak Yussif, alias Nyaa Dagbani.
All the accused persons, except Zakaria Yakubu, have been charged with conspiracy to murder and have pleaded not guilty to the charge. Zakaria has been charged with murder.