Ya Na Appeal Case Adjourned

The late Ya Naa Yakubu Andani

THE COURT of Appeal yesterday adjourned a case by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Martin Amidu, which sought to have a re-trial of the Ya Na's case under a new judge.

The court presided over by Justice G. M. Quaye, Isaac Douse and Senyo Dzamefe adjourned the matter sine die after they observed that the respondents had not been served with the notice.

Justice G. M. Quaye, when the case was called, observed that the respondents had sent a letter indicating that they were not aware of the appeal as they had not been served.

When the judge verified from the State Attorney, Evelyn Keelson, she confirmed that the respondents had not been served.

The judges then adjourned the case with an order for the Attorney-General to serve the respondents.   

Fifteen people were charged for the murder of Ya Na Yakubu Andani II, overlord of Dagbon in March 2002 and were discharged and acquitted by a Fast Track High Court presided over by Justice E.K. Ayebi of the Court of Appeal sitting as an additional High Court judge.

The application for re-trial was in the form of a notice of appeal the AG filed before the Court of Appeal.

In the notice deposed to by Gertrude Aikins, Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), the AG said the prosecution was appealing the whole ruling, where they would seek 'to set aside the ruling of the High Court (Fast Track Division), Accra, dated 29th March 2011 in CASE NO B.O.1 14/2010 given by His Lordship, Mr. Justice E.K. Ayebi sitting as an additional High Court Judge.'

Additionally, the prosecution, which has become the appellant at this stage, is asking the Court of Appeal 'to order the re-trial of the respondents before the High Court differently constituted.'

On the grounds of appeal, the AG said, 'The learned trial judge erred in law in admitting the alleged proceedings of the commission as evidence to contradict the evidence of most of the witnesses for the prosecution whose evidence was consistent with the judgment contained in the Report of the Wuaku Commission against the same accused persons under article 280 of the Constitution, 1992.'

The AG said the trial judge got it wrong in law when he made findings of law which were inconsistent with the adverse findings contained in the judgment of the report of the commission under article 280 of the Constitution, 1992.

The AG said the judge also erred in law when he held that the charge of conspiracy to commit murder failed because the Ya Na's death had not been positively proved at the trial.

'The learned trial judge misdirected himself on the law when he held that because the Abudus asserted that they fought a war with the Andanis, it followed that the Andanis, who also fought, were equally liable and therefore the fourteen (14) accused persons not only participated in the war which led to the death of the Ya Na, but could not be found liable for the offences charged upon evidence given by any prosecution witness who is an Andani.'

The trial judge, according to the AG, approached the case with 'a fundamental prejudice and bias' against any Andani prosecution witness and so disabled himself from an impartial assessment of the evidence before him, which led him to the 'erroneous' conclusion that the Andani witnesses appeared to him to be telling the whole world that any Abudu was potentially liable for the murder of the Ya Na when, in fact, none of the fourteen (14) accused persons was standing trial for the murder of the Ya Na.

The AG said the judge's ruling 'has occasioned a substantial miscarriage of justice.'

Those on trial are Iddrisu Iddi aka Mbadugu, Alhaji Baba Abdulai Iddrisu aka Zohe, Kwame Alhassan aka Achiri, Mohamadu Abdulai aka Samasama, Sayibu Mohammed, Alhassan Braimah and Alhaji Mohammed Habib Tijani, 45, former DCE of Yendi in the erstwhile NPP regime.

The rest are Baba Ibrahim aka Baba Zey, Alhassan Mohammed aka Mohammed Cheampon, Mohammed Mustapha, Shani Imoro, Yakubu Yusif aka Leftee and Hammed Abukari Yussif and Abdul Razak Yussif aka Nyaa.

 They all pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to murder, with Zakaria Yakubu aka Zakaria Forest (A7), still at large, facing an additional charge of murder.

By Mary Anane