Thursday, May, 2010,
By Stephen Kwabena Effah
The much anticipated release of four of the 10 persons being held over the murder of the Overlord of Dagbon, Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II, could not come on yesterday, because the District Magistrate who was to order their release was said to be indisposed.
State prosecutors had on Tuesday, disclosed that four of the 10 men put before an Accra magistrate court were going to be discharged and the six others committed for trial, but the court did not sit yesterday because Ms. Patricia Quansah, the magistrate, was reported not well.
Court officials made the announcement at about 8:45 am yesterday and consequently adjourned the case to May 31.
The sizeable number of sympathizers and relatives who had by 8:15 am, filled the court premises awaiting the arrival of the accused persons to the Court appeared taken aback by the announcement, and left the court premises after their leaders briefed them on the new development.
Meanwhile, counsel for the 10 persons, Atta Akyea, said he has written to the Attorney-General seeking the release of the four whose names have not yet been disclosed by the prosecution in the case.
“If there is no factual legal basis for their arraignment, then they should be released unconditionally,” Mr. Akyea told the Times in a telephone interview yesterday.
Chief State Attorney, Anthony Rexford Owiredu, who made the disclosure on Tuesday, declined to give the names of the four accused persons and the reasons for their expected discharge, saying that information would be given in court.
Asked whether he would initiate any action to compel the A-G to release the four persons, Mr. Akyea said: “we will only plead with the Attorney General to release them.”
The 10 accused persons 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; Alhassan Braima and Abubakar Mahama.
Yidani Sugri who is facing one count of unlawful military training, was on Tuesday, granted GH¢ 10,000 bail with one surety, while the others who face two counts of conspiracy to murder, and murder were refused bail.
The 10 persons were arrested on April 10, for their alleged complicity in the murder of the Ya-Na and 22; of his elders, and put before the magistrate’s court on April 12.
According to state prosecutors, the bill of indictment and summary of evidence had been prepared to commit six of them for trial on the next adjourned date.
Ya-Na and his elders were murdered in 2002 during a three-day siege on the Gbewaa Palace in an intractable chieftaincy dispute between the two royal gates-Andani and Abudu-of Yendi.
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