One More Charged in Ya-Na's Case

Thursday, May 6, 2010
By Stephen Kwabena Effah

ONE more person was yesterday, put before court for his alleged complicity in the murder of the Overlord of Dagbon, Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II. This bring to 10, the total number of persons arraigned before court so far.

The accused person is Abubakar Mahama, and state prosecutors hinted that more people are expected to be arraigned soon.

The nine, others are Iddrisu Iddi, 76; Alhaji Baba Abdula, 56; Kwame Alhassan, 53; Yidana Sugri, 42; Mohammed Kojo, 45; Mahamadu Abdulai, 57; Sayibu Mohammed, 34; Yakubu Mahamadu, 42 and Alhassan Braima. The accused are alleged to have murdered Ya-Na in 2002 in his Palace at Yendi.

The Accra District Magistrate Court, presided over by Ms. Patricia Quansah, refused all the 10 persons bail, saying that it has no jurisdiction to grant them bail because it has only “summary jurisdiction.”

It said it could grant bail only when the facts of the case did not support the charges against the accused persons, it could not say so in the present instance.

The court asked the accused persons to apply for bail at the High Court if they so desired indicating that any decision apart from remanding them would be in conflict with the High Court.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Mrs. Gertrude Aikins, said the prosecution had between April 12 and yesterday, “been able to get some evidence against the accused persons.”

She, did not state the kind of evidence the prosecution has, but asked for two more weeks for further investigations which, she said, was necessary considering the fact that the incident occurred in 2002, thus making investigations difficult.

Mrs. Aikins said that by the end of the two weeks the prosecution would be able to put forward a bill of indictment.

In view of the new evidence, the prosecution yesterday substituted the charge sheet on the nine persons who were first arraigned on April 12, with a new one but the charges of conspiracy, murder and unlawful military training remained.

The prosecution told the court that it would on the next adjourned date, May 19, consolidate the two dockets of the nine persons and the 10th accused person.

According to her, the prosecution is using the Wuako Commission’s report only as a basis for further investigations.

She said that Article 14 (3) of the Constitution inferentially admits that investigations cannot be conducted within 48 hours, hence the provision that persons arrested are put before court within that period.

Counsel for the accused persons, Atta Akyea, said “the charge as currently preferred is a ruse so that they (his clients) are deprived of their liberty.”

Describing the prosecution’s argument as a “clever manoeuvre” by the Attorney-General to secure further remand of his clients, Counsel
argued that “as it stands, the prosecution does not have a proper charge of murder for the court to exercise its jurisdiction under the criminal law not to grant the accused persons bail.”