Source: newsthemegh.com
Four people were detained for their alleged roles in the train accident at Abortia in the Volta Region, and an Accra High Court has given them each GH₵200,000 bail.
The defendants, Koku Koudjo, a 34-year-old gas welder, Patrick Kwaku Sosu, a 52-year-old laborer, Alaza Prosper, a 28-year-old laborer, and Fiadugbe Emmanuel, a 31-year-old laborer, were directed by the court, presided over by Justice Mrs. Lydia Osei Marfo, to furnish sureties with explanations.
Every Friday, they have to report to the police. The defendants and their sureties were directed by the court to turn up copies of their Ghanaian passports to the Court Registry.
Additionally, it forewarned the accused that their bail would be revoked if they failed to appear in court and that a bench warrant would be issued for their arrest if they arrived late.
The prosecution has been given until June 6, 2024, to file its disclosures, hence the case has been postponed. The defendants are accused of aiding and abetting unlawful harm.
They are charged with helping jailed truck driver Abel Dzidotor cause illegal damage to the Diesel Multiple Unit Train.
The judge granted them bail, noting that the investigations against the accused were almost finished. The court stated that even if the offenders were given bail, the harm they had caused could still be evaluated.
Assistant State Attorney Christabel Selma Anafure led the prosecution informing the court that the state has asked experts to assess the damage. She thus asked that the accused be kept on detention and that the case be postponed.
The accused had applied for bail, and the defense team, lead by Richard Laapo, brought this to the court’s notice.
Mr. Laapo pointed out that the Republic had not received the application for bail.
From the defense attorney’s perspective, the Republic’s motion for an adjournment shouldn’t stop the court from using its discretion and releasing the accused.
“Per the submission of the Republic, they have invited experts to value the damage caused or suffered by the train. The assessment of the damage has no bearing on the grant of bail by the court,” he asserted.
The prosecution’s evidence was that Dr. Divine Olutey, the complainant, works as an engineer for the Ghana Railway Corporation.
According to the statement, the accused were in a Hyundai Gold Truck with the license plate GS 9018-20 on April 18, 2024, between 0900 and 1300 hours. The driver of the truck, Dzidotor Abel, is currently incarcerated.
Preliminary investigations, according to the prosecution, showed that Koudjo, the first accused, bought blocks from a Juapong firm and brought them to Abortia via the railway underpass.
The accused was in the truck with the convict, Dzidotor. They decided not to use the underpass but to drive across the railway with the van after unloading the blocks at Koudjo’s location.
The prosecutor asserted that the four defendants took the railway lines as a “shortcut” to get to Juapong even though they knew they were off-limits to cars.
According to the prosecution, the accused cleared a path for the vehicle with stones after realizing they couldn’t cross the railroad tracks.
But the truck ended up stranded on the railroad tracks. The accused tipped the head of the truck and fled the scene without alerting the trains on the tracks, the prosecutor stated in court.
The prosecution claimed that the Juapong road was not connected by an access route that crossed the railroad tracks.
It claimed that a sizable gutter on the west side of the lines would have kept the accused from connecting to the Akuse-Juapong road even if the truck had crossed.
The complainant and 28 engineers from Ghana and Poland tested the new Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) train on the day it traveled from Tema to Mpakadan, according to testimony given to the court.
The prosecution claimed that the train crashed into a stalled Hyundai Gold truck on the railroad track in the Abortia area, despite the test run having been announced in advance.
“Both the train and truck got damaged, the train was sent to Tema for examination while the scrap of the vehicle, which was damaged beyond repairs, was taken to the Juapong Police Station for further action,” the Prosecution added.