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The family of the late Major Maxwell Adam Mahama has pleaded with the government and successive ones not to grant a presidential pardon to any of the 12 persons convicted of the murder of their son.
That, they said, would ensure that nobody would ever engage in mob justice.
This was the plea of the family when they paid a visit to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, yesterday in Accra.
The delegation was led by Maj. Mahama’s mother, Veronica Bamford, and his uncle, Kaleona Tizzala.
Present at the meeting was the Deputy Attorney-General, Alfred Tuah Yeboah-Yeboah; the Solicitor-General, Helen Akpene Ziwu; the Director of Public Prosecutions, Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa and a Chief State Attorney, Evelyn Keelson, among other state attorneys.
Also present was a representative of the Legal Department of the Ghana Armed Forces, Col. Daniel Mensah-Gorman.
Gruesome
Major Mahama was the captain of the 31-member military team sent to Denkyira Obuasi to guard the properties of C&G Mining Company as a result of illegal mining activities in the area.
He was gruesomely lynched by some members of the Denkyira Obuasi community in the Central Region in 2017 while on duty, with the attackers claiming that they had mistaken Major Mahama for a robber.
After five years of trial at the Criminal Jurisdiction of the High Court presided over by Justice Mariama Owusu, a Justice of the Supreme Court sitting with additional responsibility as a High Court Judge last Monday, found 12 persons guilty and handed them a life sentence.
Toll
Mrs Bamford, who was in tears, explained that the gruesome murder of her son had taken a toll on her mental health, saying: “I hope this never happens to anyone, I have suffered a lot and I am even surprised that I am still here.
“May they (convicts) never come out, and any government that will give any of them pardon will have my son’s blood on his hands,” she said.
Mr Tizzala commended the Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice for their dedication to help bring finality to the matter.
He said the family was relieved by the unanimous verdict of the seven-member panel against the 12 convicts.
“This is not because the sentence will bring back our son, but it will make us feel better to the extent that in the end, the verdict will be a deterrent to people who may ever think of taking the law into their own hands by brutally murdering any innocent son or daughter of the soil.
“This is why we’re very happy with the end result,” he said.
Horrific, reforms
Describing the crime as one of the most horrific ones that shocked the conscience of the country, the A-G said that mob action must not be entertained at all in the country.
“For me, the most important lesson to be drawn is what you have all alluded to that, indeed, mob violence should have no place in our scheme of things,” he said.
Mr Dame stated that the incident had resulted in reforms in the criminal justice system, explaining that even before the trial, the Vigilantism and Related Offences Act, 2019 (Act 999) was enacted after the horrific incident, to deal with mob violence in the country.
Beyond that, he further stated that his office was in the process of reforming the mode in which murder cases were conducted to ensure expeditious determination of cases.
Background
A seven-member jury last Monday returned a unanimous verdict of guilty against a former Assembly Member and 11 others at the High Court in Accra in the murder trial of Maj. Mahama.
The former Assembly Member at Denkyira Obuasi, William Baah, was found guilty on the charge of abetment of murder, while Bernard Asamoah, Kofi Nyame, Akwasi Baah, Kwame Tuffuor, Joseph Appiah Kubi, Michael Anim, Akwesi Asante, Charles Quaining, Emmanuel Baidoo, John Boasie and Kwadwo Animah were found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder.
The jury also returned a guilty verdict on the charge of murder against Asamoah, Nyame, Baah, Tuffuor, Kubi, Anim, Asante and Quaining.
Two others — Bismark Donkor and Bismarck Abanga — who stood trial alongside the 12, were, however, acquitted and discharged after the jury returned a verdict of not guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit murder.
All 12 were sentenced to life imprisonment due to the amendment to the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), which changed the punishment for murder from death to life imprisonment.
Source: Graphic online
