A prosecution witness has
testified that Adams Mahama, then Upper East Regional Chairman of the New
Patriotic Party (NPP) who was allegedly murdered in 2015, revealed his killers
to him before he died.
Tofic Mutallah, a friend and
business partner of Mahama, told the Accra High Court yesterday that the
politician mentioned Gregory Afoko and Asabke Alangdi, the two accused of
Mahama’s murder, as those who poured a substance believed to be acid on him.
“He called me, held my hand and
said ‘Tofic, Gregory and Asabke were the ones who poured the substance on me’,”
the witness said.
While fighting for his life at
the Bolgatanga General Hospital, Mutallah said, Mahama also begged him to take
care of his family in the event he (Mahama) died.
“He said in case he passes away,
I should take care of his wife and children for him. He also told me to send
his corpse to his hometown for burial,” the witness added.
pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy
to commit murder and murder
Afoko and Alangdi have denied any knowledge of the murder of
the former NPP Regional Chairman, and have pleaded not guilty to two counts of
conspiracy to commit murder and murder.
Mutallah, who gave his
evidence-in-chief in Hausa, was testyfying at the court, presided over by
Justice Afua Merley Wood, a Justice of the Court of Appeal, sitting as a High
Court judge.
Evidence-in-chief
Led by the prosecutor, Ms.
Marina Appiah Opare, a Chief State Attorney, Mutallah took the court through
what was supposed to be Mahama’s last day as a healthy person on earth before
his death.
The witness, who described
himself as a building and road contractor, the same line of business Mahama
did, said on May 20, 2015, he was with Mahama at a construction site where
Mahama was putting up a hotel.
According to him, after working
on the site all day, the two went for a meeting with a group of NPP youth from
Bawku in the evening.
The meeting, he said, ended
around 10:30 p.m., after which Mahama, and another person he named as Zakari,
departed to their various homes around 11 p.m.
He said shortly after he got
home, he got a call from Mahama’s wife — Hajia Zainabu Adams.
“She was crying and said
something had been poured on her husband and that he had been rushed to the
hospital. I rushed to the hospital on my motorbike and saw Mahama lying at the
emergency ward,” he said.
Mutallah added that when he got
to the hospital, Mahama was in a terrible state with parts of the skin of his
body peeled off.
He said it was during his stay
at the hospital that Mahama heard his voice and told him that it was Gregory
and Asabke who poured the substance, believed to be acid, on him.
Cross-examination
During cross-examination, counsel
for Afoko, Stephen Sowah Charway, asked the witness about the timelines of the
events he (witness) had narrated to the court.
The witness was able to tell
counsel when the said meeting ended and when he parted ways with Mahama, but
was unable to tell the exact time that Mahama’s wife called him or when he got
to the hospital.
“I’m putting it to you that
you’re not being truthful to the court,” Charway told the witness.
Mutallah disagreed and replied that “I will never tell lies, I have sworn on the Holy Quran and, therefore, I will not lie”.
The cross-examination will continue today.
Background
Adams Mahama suffered severe
bodily injuries after a substance suspected to be acid was allegedly poured on
him in front of his house in Bolgatanga on May 20, 2015.
He later died from the injuries
at the Bolgatanga General Hospital.
Afoko was initially the only one
standing trial after Alangdi allegedly absconded from Ghana.
After more than three years of
trial, the Attorney-General (A-G) filed a nolle prosequi on January 28, 2019,
to discontinue the trial following the arrest of Alangdi, a situation that led
to a new trial.
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