The third accused person in the case in which some 14 persons are standing trial for the murder of the late Major Maxwell Mahama, Kofi Nyame, has told the High Court in Accra that he stoned the late military officer.
Nyame, also known as Abortion, said though he threw a stone at the young soldier he was drunk and couldn’t tell if the stone hit him or not.
Kofi Nyame, while being led by his lawyer to open his defence, told the court in his evidence-in-chief that the security situation at Denkyira Obuasi before May 29, 2017, incident was “very bad.”
He said he was attacked, and robbed of his valuables and money and that experience made him “felt pained” when he got to the scene leading to him to throw a stone.
Narrating his side of the story to the High Court in Accra presided over by Justice Mariama Owusu, a Justice of the Supreme Court sitting as an additional responsibility as a High Court judge said he felt troubled when his attention was drawn by one Agya Koo that the man they had killed was a soldier.
Security at Denkyira Obuasi very bad
Kofi Nyame said before he was arrested by the military officers he lived at Denkyira Obuasi where he worked as a farmer and also sells diesel.
He told the court that before the incident of May 29, 2017, the security situation at Denkyira Obuasi was “very bad” and that “there was no police station in the town.”
According to him, he used to work at night -buying diesel and on one evening, he was attacked, and “my valuables and little money I have were taken away.”
Unfortunate May 29
He said on the morning of May 29, 2017, which was a Sunday, “I worked throughout the night and the next day that was Monday, I was very tired so went to sleep.”
He said while sleeping, “I heard a loud noise on my door amidst calling of my name and I came out from my room which is close to the roadside. When I opened the door, I saw a lady by the name, sister Ataa.”
Sister Ataa, he said “told me that she had discovered that somebody said to be an armed robber had been beaten.”
He said because “I lived by the roadside, I saw a lot of crowd on the road and I realised “no vehicle was coming and no vehicle was going because of the crowd.”
Abortion told the court: “I also joined the crowd and saw members of the unit committee and suggested to them that if the person was arrested then they should send him to the police. But, the members of the committee told me ‘I am not the one to tell them how to do their job’.”
The third accused told the court, “after saying that to me it made me standby, but then, I saw that the crowd was beating a certain man so when I approached the scene I saw that what they wanted to do had already been done.”
I stoned him, but I was drunk
The accused told the court that when he remembered “what I encountered the previous time, …I felt pained. And I threw a stone at him.”
“By then I was quite drunk and because of that I cannot tell for certain if I hit him with the stone or not then after I went to sleep,” Kofi Nyame told the court.
Agya Koo’s call
He added that “I came back home to sleep and I was sleeping when I got a call from Agya Koo, asking me to see him at where I buy my diesel.”
He told the court, “when I went to see Agya Koo, we had a chat and he told me that he will give me money for diesel but then we did not know that the deceased was an army officer.”
He said, “Agya Koo countered money and gave it to me with some gallons. When I was about to leave, I saw that TiKwa had come to park a motorbike behind us around 3:00 pm.
He told the court that, the said TiKwa told Agya Koo that “if it was not for him, the people of Denkyira Obuasi would not have been able to apprehend the deceased.”
Agya Koo then told TiKwa not to park his motorbike where he sells diesel so that members of Denkyira Obuasi will not come after him.
We didn’t know he was a military officer
He told the court that “all these while, the people of Denkyira Obuasi did not know that the person they were hitting with the stones, sticks and shot was a military officer.“
Kofi Nyame told the court,” after 4:00 pm, I came back home. But, at about 5:00 pm I had a call from Agya Koo again and he told me to bring back the money he had just given me.”
“I returned his money to him and returned home. That was when Agya Koo called and told me that the deceased was a soldier and because I was troubled, I went to drink again,” he told the court.
Asked to tell the court who TiKwa is he said, “TiKwa was the one who said he shot at the deceased (Major Mahama),” but “Now I can’t tell the exact location of TiKwa.”
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Foolish man come out
Abortion told the court that, “when I returned home to sleep my younger sibling called me but I did not pay any attention to his call.”
He said the younger sibling then told me that the people in the town are running away.
“I went out and saw that people were boarding vehicles and motorbikes to leave the town so I asked myself if was it because the man was a military officer that was why Agya Koo asked to return the money he has given me earlier.”
At this point, he said, “…I went back to sleep. Whilst sleeping at about 2:30 am to 3a, I heard a loud noise on my door and when I enquired about the people, I heard somebody say, ‘foolish man come out.’
He explained that “when I got up to unlock the door they (military officers) pulled me out and in the process, I fell and one of them hit me with the butt of a gun on my forehead.”
He said they held him and “dragged me into the back of their pickup.”
Starrfm reported that Kofi Nyame mounted the witness box to open his defence after Bernard Asamoah, the 2nd Accused closed his case after cross examination by the prosecution.
The Criminal Division of the Accra High Court presided over by Justice Mariama Owusu, a Justice of the Supreme Court sitting as an additional High Court judge has adjourned proceedings to February 13 for continuation.