Kombian back in the dock for murder

 February 8, 2014 (Page 24/25)

FLASHBACK: Johnson Kombian being escorted by prison wardens to court

The notorious robber, Johnson Kombian, who once broke jail and suffered penalty for it, has been accused of murdering two policemen.

Kombian is facing two counts of murder and one count of conspiracy.
The Fast Track High Court, which was billed to hear the case yesterday, adjourned proceedings to March 4, 2014 because the accused person was absent.
The presiding judge, Mr Justice Mustapha Habib Logoh, directed officials of the Ankaful Prison in Cape Coast to bring the accused person to court on the next adjourned date.
A Chief State Attorney, Mr Anthony Rexford Wiredu, had prayed the court to adjourn proceedings to enable the prison officers to produce Kombian at the next hearing.

Nature of Offence
 Kombian, alias Garkun (meaning “death fears”), and his accomplices, who are currently on the run, are alleged to have ambushed three policemen on October 17, 2010 and succeeded in killing two of them.
The deceased are Constable Prince Agyare and Constable Owusu Frimpong.
The third policeman, Corporal Osei Bonsu, who sustained gunshot wounds, survived.

Facts of the case
The facts of the case are that Kombian allegedly conspired with his friend, Kofi Naaman, alias Accra Boy, to rob Djato Mathias and then attempted to kill him.
Kombian was arrested, tried and sentenced to serve six years in prison by the Circuit Court in Tamale but he escaped while serving his jail term


Nakpanduri Terror
According to the prosecution, Kombian sought refuge at Nakpanduri in the Bunkprugu Yunyoo District in the Northern Region, which happened to be his home town.
On October 17, 2010, the accused person and his accomplices received information that a number of policemen had been detailed to perform duties at the Nakpanduri Scarp.
Suspecting that the policemen had been assigned to pick him up, Kombian and his friends, who were also labelled as notorious robbers by the prosecution,  ambushed and attacked the three policemen.
They allegedly fired gunshots at the deceased policemen who were then on a motorbike. The policemen fell into a 10-metre long valley in the process.
The accused person and his group continued to fire sporadically into the valley, with the hope of killing the policemen, who also retaliated with occasional gun fire.
Agyare made a distress call while firing back at Kombian and his gang from his hide out.

More fire
After 30 minutes of firing, Kombian and his gang stopped, and on realising that the gunshots had ended, Agyare and his colleagues mistakenly thought their attackers had left. They, therefore, came out of their hideout and were subjected to more gun fire.
Help finally came for Agyare and his colleagues while Kombian and his accomplices bolted. The wounded policemen were conveyed to the Nalerigu Hospital but Agyare was later pronounced dead.
Frimpong died later, while Bonsu was transferred to the Police Hospital in Accra where he was treated and discharged.

The escape
Kombian escaped to Togo after the incident but he was later picked up by the Togolese authorities and handed over to the Ghanaian authorities.
The accused person was convicted by the Circuit Court, presided over by Mr Justice E. Kyei-Baffour, and sentenced to serve five years’ imprisonment for escaping from lawful custody.
The accused person, who is currently serving an 11-year jail term, was subsequently put before the District Court which committed him for trial at the Fast Track High Court.