Ransford Gyampo, an associate professor in the political science department of the University of Ghana has expressed worry over delay in delivering justice in connection with the murder of the late Major Maxwell Mahama.
Major Mahama of the 5 Battalion of Infantry was lynched while he went jogging in the early hours of Monday 29 May 2017.
The mob made up of residents of Denkyira-Obuasi in the Central Region who stoned and burnt him later claimed that they mistook him for an armed robber because he carried a weapon.
State prosecutors on Monday (16 May) closed their case against 14 accused persons who have been charged with the offence of murdering the young soldier in 2017.
Reacting to the development, Gyampo questioned the rationale behind fast tracking delivery of justice in some legal cases in the country.
“The wheels of justice turn instantly when Oliver Barker-Vormawor drives recklessly. But when people, captured on video to be using stones to hit the head of a soldier and killing him like beela (rat) are taken to court, the same wheels of justice takes more than five years to keep turning,” Gyampo posted on Facebook.
“What do we think we are doing to morale among soldiers dispatched for national assignments? Are we not inciting soldiers against civilians? Are we not putting them aggressively on the defensive whenever they encounter civilians?”
Gyampo added: “If we cannot all advocate for a finality to be brought to the trial of the murderers of Major Maxwell Mahama, without further delay, then the warning of potential terrorist attack on us, to my mind, is merely hypocritical and diversionary.”
Below is the full post
On Monday( 16 May) State prosecutors closed their case against 14 accused persons who have been charged with the offence of murdering the late Major Maxwell Mahama in 2017.
Defence lawyers after the state closed its case indicated to the trial judge, Justice Mariama Owusu, a Justice of the Supreme Court sitting with additional responsibility as a High Court judge, that they intend to file a “submission of no case” application before the court.
A submission of no case is basically an application made by defendant lawyers asking a trial court for an acquittal of their clients without the accused persons having to present a defence.
Justice Mariama Owusu, after the signal of the defence lawyers, ordered them to do same within the next two weeks.
She further ruled that the parties are to return to court on 30 May 2022 to spell out timelines for the state to respond to the “submission of no case” application.
Long break
The court has been trying the 14 accused persons over the last six years following the gruesome murder of Major Mahama. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the trial took nearly a one-and-a-half year break.
Between January and April 2021, the trial suffered another break because the trial judge was one of seven Supreme Court Justices who adjudicated the 2020 presidential election petition.
Posthumous promotion
The gruesome murder shocked the entire nation, and led President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to promote him posthumously to Major, give him a state burial and set up a trust fund to cater for his family and any other matters.
President Akufo-Addo made a personal donation of GHC50,000, while the state, after the passage by Parliament of the Major Mahama Trust Fund Act, 2017 (Act 960), has provided GHC500,000.00.
The President also ordered the construction of a monument near Burma Camp to serve as a constant reminder to all Ghanaians not to indulge in such acts of shame and dishonour again.
Fifty-three people were arrested following the incident but that number was reduced to 14 after several weeks of investigations into the incident.
Fred Dzakpata
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