Nearly 7 years after the gruesome lynching of the late Major Maxwell Adams Mahama by a mob in Denkyira Obuasi in the Central Region, 12 people have been found guilty of abetment, conspiracy and murder of the late soldier.
An Accra High Court, through a jury trial, has found William Baah, a former Assemblyman for Denkyira-Obuasi and 11 others guilty of the murder of Captain Maxwell Mahama.
In a unanimous verdict by a seven-member jury, the convicts were found guilty of abetment to murder, conspiracy to commit to wit murder and murder.
The Court, presided over by Justice Mariama Owusu, a Justice of the Supreme Court, sitting as an additional High Court Judge, accordingly convicted and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The sentences are to run concurrently.
She said that from the evidence available to the court, there was no doubt that the captain was dead and that the cause of death was not natural.
The other convicts are Bernard Asamoah, alias Daddy, Kofi Nyame, a.k.a. Abortion, Akwasi Boah, Kwame Tuffour, Joseph Appiah Kubi, Michael Anim, John Bosie, Akwasi Baah, Charles Kwaning, Emmanuel Badu and Kwadwo Anima.
The court also acquitted and discharged Bismarck Donkor and Bismarck Abanga for conspiracy to commit a crime, to wit, murder.
This is after a seven-member jury, in their unanimous decision, returned a not guilty verdict in their favor.
The convicts, who were initially calm before the verdict dressed in all-white shirts over a pair of trousers, started raising their hands to catch the eye of the court and to be heard.
During the trial, the prosecution called 14 witnesses and led several pieces of evidence to prove their case, where a prima facia case was made against them.
Captain Mahama, who was an Officer of the 5th Infantry Battalion at Burma Camp, was on duty at Denkyira-Obuasi in the Central Region.
At 8 a.m. on May 29, 2017, Major Mahama, wearing civilian clothes but with his sidearm, left his detachment base for a 20-kilometre jog.
At 9:25 a.m., the military officer got to the outskirts of Denkyira Obuasi, where several women were selling foodstuffs by the roadside.
He stopped to interact with the women and even bought some snails, which he left in their custody to be taken up on his return from jogging.
While he was taking out money from his pocket to pay for the snails, the woman from whom he had bought the snails and a few others saw his sidearm tucked to his waist.
Soon after he left, one of the women telephoned the assembly member for Denkyira Obuasi to report what they had seen.
“Without verifying the information, the assembly member mobilized the accused persons and others, some now at large, to attack the military officer,” the prosecution stated.
It added that the mob met Major Mahama near the Denkyira Obuasi cemetery and, without allowing him to explain and identify himself, “attacked him with implements such as clubs, cement blocks and machetes, killed him and burned a portion of his body.”
Mr. Godfred Dame, the Attorney-General, told journalists after the court sitting that the State was satisfied with the conviction and that they could only express sympathies to the family of the late Captain.
He said the verdict would act as a deterrent to people who practice mob justice in the country.
