Captain Mahama’s Murder: Eyewitnesses Account To Avoid Or Not To Avoid?

What happened on Monday morning to Captain Maxwell Adam Mahama a platoon commander deployed to a tiny mining town called Denkyira Obuasi in the central region of Ghana would give police and investigators a heck of time to get to the bottom. Good news is we already know how it happened, when it happened, and where it happened.

Indeed we’ve seen the heart wrenching images—the stone-faced crowd, the baton/machete wielders, the stone/block throwers, the fire-setters/ burners, the videographers, the onlookers/bystanders including those that hurled insults and added salt to injury. We’ve heard and listened to the horrid and outrageous accounts, some of them as bizarre as the word itself. We’ve seen the bylines and read the screaming headlines. And the tributes continue to pour from daylight to twilight. .

But that’s not enough. We still have a puzzle that hangs around our necks like an albatross. What precipitated the devastating event on that fateful Monday morning remains unknown. And it appears to be a jigsaw that would linger for months to come.

That doesn’t sound pleasant but here’s why. Information gathering is mosaic. Connecting the dots is time consuming plus it demands huge resources and energy. Also given the murkiness of this murder case I am afraid things might not move as fast as we envisage.

And that concern or fear has been confirmed by the District Police Commander of the hotspot. Yesterday, ASP Osei-Adu Agyemang told Joy News an Accra-based radio that the huge presence of the military personnel at the community in the wake of the incident had forced the residents to flee the town.

“The presence of the military has forced the residents to flee their home, which is thwarting police efforts at getting witnesses to give them credible information and to what led to the death of the officer. Our fear now is the soldiers storming Denkyira Obuasi and most of the people leaving town. It will take time for police to take the possible witnesses to help us speed up investigations,” he said.

The Police have called for the withdrawal of the military from the town and also accused them of hindering investigations into the incident.

In the meantime, Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul has described the incident as ‘weird’ promising that government will investigate the murder thoroughly.

“The circumstance under which this officer was murdered callously has not yet been established so I will urge that we don’t draw conclusions until a thorough investigation has taken place".

According to him the circumstance surrounding the killing is eerie because the deceased was armed.

“If it was the normal Ghanaian way of shouting ‘jolour’ [thief] then straight away the officer would have wasted some people if he knew they would kill him. It is clear the way he was murdered, the villagers might not have raised the thief syndrome of shouting. They may have hit him without him knowing what their intentions were," the Minister said.

In fact at its fluid stage and even 48 hours later many had questions like these:

Why did he put himself in a harm’s way, a place notoriously known for lynching?

Well, it’s been established that wasn’t the first time he was undertaken such exercise. He knew the terrain. And I think he knew where he was going. Therefore, the account that he stopped by on the way to make an enquiry from some women, to me was an afterthought. I think the supposed women knew who Maxwell was. And knowing where he was heading to they quickly informed the Assemblyman who in turn mobilised the mob to carry out the dastardly act. So I think he was sort of ambushed. But as agile as he was and given the fact that he was armed he quickly fired warning shots when he sensed danger.

That move, I believe gave him a little leeway to run for his life but as fate would have it the wolves outran him. Did they have or gun or guns at the time?

No, I don’t think so, even though one eyewitness claimed they fired multiple gunshots. I bet they would have killed him instantly the moment he pulled his trigger. Be reminded their mission was to kill and not to spare or pamper him.

Did he have an ID to prove he was a soldier? Ye he did have an ID and also had a cell phone on him. The irony is his attackers didn’t mind his identity card. They saw him as enemy, someone who was denying them their livelihood. Their lifeline is Galamsey and he who is against it is viewed as enemy r # 1.

Danger was all around him. The atmosphere was unfriendly and mercy had petered out. He was between the sea and hard rock. And he’d to withdraw all the stamina, faith and hope he’d put at the bank as the mob pursued him.

Sometimes Good Samaritans are difficult to come by when danger looms. There was one on a motorbike who could have rescued Captain Mahama but he wasn’t Good Samaritan. Maybe he was used as a decoy or maybe not. The account by the Okada rider that he feared for his life and couldn’t move the bike after several pleas by Maxwell (as he recounted) must not be bought. That account smacks foul to say the least.

From his account, Captain Maxwell had outrun the irate crowd and they’d to use a car to get him. Was he coming from behind him or at the opposite direction? Or was it stationed? If it came from the same direction then it could be that they’d asked him to pretend he was given him a ride.

“I told him I could not move the motorbike because I was afraid the people might attack me too looking at the way they were coming at him. So he moved from my bike and started running but they chased him with a vehicle. Before they got to him, he was shooting to scare the people away and the bullet hit me in the process,” said the bike rider.

So why did he stop in the first place?
Why didn’t he move? I believe Maxwell would have shown him his ID.

Here this is me; I am a military officer not a rogue, not a criminal, not an armed robber as they’re chanting. I could hear him say that repeatedly.

Beware of Eyewitness Account
Many high profile cases have either gone unsolved or become cold due in part to eyewitnesses’ accounts. Around May/June 1999 a cab driver was killed by his passenger at Roman Ridge near PAWA House in Accra. The incident happened on Saturday morning between 7:30-8:00. It had been witnessed by several passengers onboard a tro-tro vehicle that tailed the taxi.

I got a phone call while preparing the major news bulletin at 8 am. I rushed from the newsroom to the scene which was less than a block away to Choice FM premises. The killer had bolted with the taxi. The victim laid in a puddle of blood. And eyewitnesses told their varied accounts. To cut a long story the suspect had managed to drive the taxi to Kumasi (a 4-hour journey) without been apprehended.

Some eyewitnesses had given the police wrong information--- the car make, colour, registration number all didn’t match the one the suspect had taken away. See, in a well-planned or premeditated murder cases Investigations take longer than expected And I am pretty sure things would not be easy in this case.

In a related development security analyst, Dr. Emmanuel Kwesi Aning has expressed anxiety about the general acceptance and glorification of violence and mob justice among Ghanaians.

Dr. Aning is worried about the general belief by a section of Ghanaians that they will not be punished when they offend the laws.

His comments followed the widespread condemnation that had greeted a mob action by the youth in Denkyira-Obuasi, who lynched the commander of a military detachment to the area claiming he was an armed robber.

Like many Dr. Anning does not see a clear pathway to correcting this way of the Ghanaian thinking anytime soon.

“If we cannot use the law to serve as deterrence…this is what we see. There is absolutely no clear pathway because, as a nation, we don’t see [violence] as an existential threat to us at all and therefore, we need to do something about. And that is why we have allowed all these threats against our institutions to go on,” he said.

So the embers of Captain Maxwell Adam Mahama’s death might be fading but there remain many unanswered questions.