Mr. Solomon Sackey, the fifth Prosecution Witness in the murder trial of Major Maxwell Mahama has said that some of the alleged murderers of Major Mahama are not in court as Accused persons.
This was during cross examination, when Counsel for the fifth and sixth Accused persons, Mr Augustine Obour, asked the witness if he agrees that the large number of people he (the Witness) claims he saw lynching Major Mahama, was more than the number of Accused persons in the dock.
The Witness agreed with Mr Obour that, he could not mention all those who lynched Major Mahama, he did not see all that transpired, and cannot tell who killed him, and when he died.
It is the case of the Witness, who is a carpenter, that, in the morning of the day Major Mahama was lynched, at around 7am, he heard that one of the armed robbers had been caught, so he took a stick, which he was going to use to hit the alleged robber and left for the scene.
According to the Witness, upon reaching where the alleged armed robber was said to be caught, he saw that Major Mahama (deceased), had been taken down the southern part of the road, close to a wall, and was being beaten.
Mr Sackey narrated that when he got to where Major Mahama was being beaten, he dropped his stick and went to prevent the mob from beating the deceased (Major Mahama), because the way he was being beaten was pitiful.
The Witness added that while preventing the mob from lynching Major Mahama, a stick hit his hand and blood started oozing, so he stepped aside to stop the bleeding and go back to stop the lynching, but because he was bleeding a lot, he could not go back.
The Witness identified the sixth, second, seventh and eleventh Accused persons, as the people he saw among the mob who lynched Major Mahama, by hitting him on the head with a cement block, punching him and hitting him with a stick, respectively.
According to the Witness, later in the day, he heard that the person who was lynched was a soldier and that some soldiers were coming to the town.
“I decided to go and hide at a friend’s place at Bogosu. While at Bogosu, a friend called and told me that he saw me in a video, recorded during the lynching of Major Mahama, and that an announcement was given that anyone who was in the video should report to the police”, the Witness narrated.
Mr. Sackey said that because he did not want to implicate the friend he was staying with, he asked his friend where the town’s police station was situated, and went to report himself.
He added that he was detained for 3 days, then was taken to the Diaso police station, where he was also detained for 3 days, before being brought to the Nima Police station, and then to the Nsawam remand centre at the Nsawam prisons.
He concluded that it was during the committal process that he was acquitted and discharged.
Source: GhanaJustice/F.Kyeremateng
