Source: newsthemegh.com
Gregory Afoko, who is charged with killing the late Adams Mahama, the Upper East Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), by dousing him in acid, has scheduled a December 5, 2023, hearing to present his case before a High Court in Accra.
On that day, the court will also determine whether to retrial Asabke Alangdi on the murder accusation, since no such order was made by the previous court that found him guilty and gave him the death penalty for conspiring to commit murder.
The prosecution, headed by Chief State Attorney Marina Appiah Opare of the Office of the Attorney General, is requesting that Asabke be retried for murder, claiming that the previous court unintentionally forgot to order that he be retried for the crime.
They cite section 406 of Act 30 to support their argument that the prior trial court’s omission is not fatal.
However, since the court that found the accused guilty of conspiracy did not order a retrial, the defense is opposed to the accused being retried on the substantive allegation of murder.
Therefore, in order to determine whether both accused parties can be tried for the murder charge, the “Criminal Court 2,” presided over by Justice Marie Louise Simmons, suspended the taking of the accused parties’ pleas yesterday.
As a result, she decided to postpone her decision and the selection of a jury consisting of seven members until December 5, 2023.
Afoko is on trial for the third time for the alleged May 2015 assassination of Adams Mahama.
The Office of the Attorney General ended the first trial after Asabke Alangdi, Afoko’s purported accomplice, left the nation after the incident and was apprehended.
On April 27 of this year, the second trial came to a close with a shocking verdict from a jury consisting of seven members.
Gregory Afoko was acquitted by the jury of conspiring to kill the late Mr. Mahama by a vote of 4 to 3, while Asabke Alangdi, his co-accused, was unanimously found guilty of the same crime.
A hung jury and a new trial by a different jury resulted from the jury’s 4:3 verdict, which found the two defendants not guilty of the main murder allegation.
Asabke Alangdi was sentenced to death by hanging after the court found him guilty of conspiracy to commit murder based on the jury’s guilty decision, while Afoko will face a new trial due to a hung jury.
According to a portion of the prosecution’s evidence, the deceased arrived home at 11:10 p.m. in his pickup truck, which had the license plate NR 761-14. As soon as he parked the truck in front of his house, the suspects approached and motioned for him to lower the window.
After identifying the culprits as partygoers, the dead rolled down the glass to have a conversation with them.
Abruptly, the suspects doused his head, face, and other body parts with what seemed to be acid before riding off on a motorcycle.
According to the prosecution, the deceased began to scream for help, and his wife, Hajia Zenabu Adams, responded by helping to get him out of the car.
According to the facts, while helping her husband, Mrs. Mahama also had burns on the right side of her chest and breast.