Ya-Na Murder Trial : Court Adjourns To Friday
The Fast Track High Court yesterday adjourned to Friday the Ya-Na murder trial to enable the defence counsel to tender copies of the Wuako Commission Report on the Yendi Chieftaincy Affairs and also cross-examine a prosecution witness in the matter.
The adjournment became necessary when Mr Philip Addison, lead counsel for the defence, started his cross-examination of the witness, Imrana Shaibu, and made reference to the report, which Ms Gertrude Aikins, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), objected to, saying that the copious quotation of the report was unacceptable, since it was not in evidence while its authenticity was doubtful in view of improved Information Communication Technology.
The objection was, however, overruled and counsel was asked to tender the report and continue with the cross-examination. Mr Addison stated that he could go ahead but had to make reference to the report and since the witness was not the proper person through whom the report could be tendered a date had to be set in order to have the document and tender it.
Earlier the DPP drew the court’s attention to a report she had received from the police that some Andani people had been going round the city terrorising women they believed were Abudus and that five of such women had been attacked at the Novotel area in which one woman who was not even from the north was slashed on the forehead.
Following that report, Mr Justice E.K. Ayebi, the judge, urged the police to be on the look-out for those people causing fear and panic among people, especially those belonging to the Abudu gate.
He asked the police to treat any such report with the urgency that it deserved, saying, “ the police must be vigilant and put their ears on the ground”.
According to the judge, the Accra Regional Police Commander had to be notified about the report for the necessary action to be taken.
Fourteen of the accused persons have pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to murder the Ya- Na, while another person, Zakaria Yakubu, now at large, is facing one count of murder of the Ya-Na.
The accused persons are Alhaji Baba Abdulai Iddrisu, aka Zohe, Kwame Alhassan, aka Achiri, Mohamadu Abdulai, aka Samasama, Sayibu Mohammed, Alhassan Braimah, Iddrisu Iddi, and Alhaji Mohammed Habib Tijani, the former DCE for Yendi during the New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime.
The rest are Alhassan Mohammed, alias Mohammed Cheampon, Abukari Nabeli, aka Kunkakums or Kooms, Mohammed Mustapha, Yakubu Yusif, aka Leftee, Abdul Razak Yussif, aka Nyaa, and Shani Imoro.
In his evidence-in-chief, Braimah, who claimed to be present when the March, 2002 dispute unfolded and gave an account that implicated the accused persons, said at the time he was a student and a friend to Alhassan Andani, one of the late king’s sons, who was his school mate.
According to him, he had gone to Yendi to present a satellite dish which Andani had asked him to bring to Yendi after he (Andani) had left Tamale earlier for Yendi to celebrate the fire festival.
He said when the bus on which they were travelling arrived at Yendi some people were celebrating the festival although it was about 7 p.m. and due to the crowd the bus had to make a detour to the station.
The witness said that they saw a pick-up full of soldiers and policemen who stopped their bus and arrested them for not complying with the curfew in the area to which they responded they were not aware, adding that people were seen celebrating in the streets.
“We were arrested and searched and taken to the police station to spend the night and in the night I heard the firing of guns until in the morning when we were released to go to our various destinations,” he said through a Dagbani interpreter.
He said when he finally got to the Gbewaa Palace where the firing continued, one Mba Musa came with gunshot wounds in the leg and as a result of the intensity of the firing they left for the inner part of the palace, where the late Ya-Na said Musa should be taken to hospital.
“After Musa had been taken to hospital, the young men fired guns to defend themselves. The Ya-Na asked the warriors to defend themselves,” he said.
The gunshots, he said, subsided and intermittently intensified until the houses nearer to the palace were burned down by the Abudus and in the morning of March 27, 2002, when the firing intensified again, “ our group also started firing back to protect the palace which had been set ablaze”.
Braimah said that when that happened they all left for the inner house of the palace which they realised was also collapsing and so his father suggested that instead of them remaining inside to be killed they should rather come out and get killed so that their people would find their remains to bury.
He said when matters became worse he ran away to a nearby mausoleum, where he was joined by some other people after being shot and sustaining gunshot wounds, which he showed to the court.
The witness said while lying down at his hideout, he saw some of the accused persons pulling the yet-to-die Ya-Na towards where he was hiding and when they got nearer he saw them holding lorry tyres, guns, petrol and a chainsaw which was used to cut the late king to death, his body set ablaze and a photograph taken of it while others held the king’s severed head.
At this stage of his evidence, the witness paused to clean some tears he had shed while another person, a woman, burst into tears.
He said after the firing had subsided he crawled to prison quarters nearby where he met his friend and others and while there they heard the sound of an armoured vehicle on the street.
He said he heard a voice from the vehicle ask in English, “ Have you not finished with your mission?” to which another person responded, “We have finished”.
He said the earlier speaker then said again that “ If you have finished, then withdraw because we are expecting some armed men from Tamale and when they come they will not spare you. They will fire at you”.
He said after that the armoured vehicle left the place and his friend came to pick him to the hospital, where he stayed for sometime only to realise that he was not safe there either.
According to him, while at the hospital on March 30, 2002, he saw a news item on GTV in which one of the accused persons, Iddrisu Iddi, and some chiefs, together with Mr J. H . Mensah, declare that since the late Ya-Na became chief for 28 years the Abudus had had no peace, which was why they came out to kill him.
“I became scared because there were soldiers and policemen around but nothing happened to Iddi. I said it was not safe for me to stay in the hospital so I left without being discharged and went to Tamale,” he claimed.