Six Ablekuma Rioters Granted Bail

Wednesday, September 5, 2012 (Page 3 Lead) The Accra Circuit Court Tuesday granted bail totalling GH¢60,000 to six persons who allegedly caused chaos in a chieftaincy violence at Ablekuma on August 25, 2012. The six were first arraigned before the court on August 28, 2012 and remanded to reappear yesterday. The accused - Nii Adjin Kofi, 67, Asafoatse Abeka Abbey, 49, Mustapha Adjin Tetteh, 42, Nii Kotey Nartey, 58, Ebenezer Ayeh, 50, and Fatau Mohammed, 19 - were each granted bail in the sum of GH¢10,000 with two sureties each. Two chiefs - Nii Kweku Fosu III, 56, and Nii Larbie Mensah, 67 - who were also arraigned on August 28, 2012 were each granted bail in the sum of GH¢20,000 with two sureties each by the court presided over by Mr Francis Ofori. All the accused persons have pleaded not guilty to three counts of conspiracy to commit crime, rioting with offensive weapons and rioting. A chieftaincy clash broke out at Ablekuma on August 25, 2012 and in the process, three persons lost their lives. Four others sustained various degrees of injury and are currently receiving medical treatment. Supporters of Nii Kweku Fosu and Nii Larbie Mensah, who are both claimants to the Ablekuma Stool, engaged in shooting and arson while the people were marking the Homowo festival. At the court’s sitting in Accra yesterday, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mr Kofi Blagodzi, told the court that Nii Kweku Fosu failed to execute his bail bond before leaving for his home. He, therefore, prayed the court to order the accused person to properly execute his bail bond together with his sureties before the investigator in charge of the case. Mr Blagodzi prayed the court to remand the six accused persons for a week because investigations were ongoing to find out the persons responsible for the death of the three persons. However, Dr Josiah Aryeh, counsel for four of the accused persons, prayed the court to grant bail to his clients because the offences for which they were being held were bailable. In granting bail, Mr Ofori said there was no evidence before the court that the accused persons would commit any atrocities when granted bail. He said criminal jurisprudence dealt only with facts and not conjectures or speculations. He also directed the accused persons to report to the police on Wednesdays.