Another alleged killer of the late Major Maxwell Adam Mahama, yesterday, admitted hitting the deceased with a cement block at the scene where he was lynched by a mob who mistook him for an armed robber.
Akwasi Baah, the fourth of 14 accused persons yesterday opened his defense and admitted the offense but was quick to tell the court that the late soldier was already dead when he smashed his head with the cement block.
The accused, led in his evidence-in-chief by his counsel, George Bernard Shaw, told the court that he was not there when the mob attacked the deceased but only got there after he had been lynched.
Akwasi Baah, who is facing a murder charge, in his defense told the court that he had been a victim of a robbery the day before the incident and upon reaching the scene where the soldier was lynched, he realised the deceased was wearing a boot similar to that which one of the robbers wore during the robbery.
He said on May 28, 2017, he was travelling from Dunkwa-on-Offin to Denkyira Obuasi when they realised a part of the road had been barricaded by armed robbers carrying an AK-47 rifle, a pump action gun and pistols who hijacked the vehicle, commanded everyone to step down and later searched all the passengers on board the vehicle.
He said he was home the next morning when he heard noises about the young men in the town apprehending one of the armed robbers from the previous day’s robbery.
He said he also heard that the armed robber had shot a young man in the foot and he had been taken to the clinic so he decided to go to the clinic to find out if the person was his relative.
He told the court he later left the clinic upon finding out that the young man was not related to him and 10 minutes after leaving the clinic, he heard an armed robber had been killed so he went to the scene where the incident occurred.
He said he saw the gun that was used in robbing him the previous day and also saw that the deceased had the same boots that were used in kicking him during the robbery the previous day. “This made me pick up a block and hit the deceased,” he said.
The prosecution led by Frances Mullen Ansah, a Chief State Attorney, during her cross-examination of the accused replayed the horrific lynching video and the accused identified himself as smashing the head of the late Major Mahama who lay motionless.
He also admitted that the cement block was so heavy that he had to carry it with two hands but denied the suggestion that he deliberately smashed the head of the late Major Mahama.