Ya Na Trial Resumes

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday Febraury 1, 2011.
Fifteen men standing trail for the murder of Ya Na Yakubu Andani II, overlord of Dagbon in March 2002, have finally filed a written ‘Submission of no case’ application to have the case discontinued for lack of evidence against them.

It was confirmed by Phillip Addison, lead counsel for the accused who said it was filed on January 25, 2011 instead of the agreed date of January 10, 2011 and subsequently apologized to the court profusely for the defense inability to file the application on time.

He explained to the court that the volumes of documents available for review made it impossible to file the application on the agreed date.

Ms. Gertrude Aikins, Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) prosecuting then asked the court for extension of time to enable the prosecution to file their application opposing the ‘Submission of no case’ application of the defense.

The court presided over by Justice E.K. Ayebi of the Court of Appeal then asked the prosecution to file a reply to the defense’ application by February 21, 2011 and adjourned proceedings until February 24, 2011.

The rules of the court are that on the adjourned date, defense counsel is expected to seek leave of the court to file additional affidavit in response to any issue that would be raised by the prosecution after which the court will fix a definite date for ruling on the matter.

Defense counsel declared their intention to file ‘Submission of no case’ when after failing on three occasions to present more witnesses the prosecution officially closed its case on November 5, 2010 and the court granted the request and asked them to file it by November 23, 2011.

However, just as the motion for “Submission of No Case” was to be moved, the prosecution on November 18, 2010 filed “an application to re-open its case and tender recording through witness.”

The affidavit, claimed the sixth accused person in the case, Alhassan Braimah is said to have been recorded by one Moses Nsor, an ex-security officer, confessing that he (Braimah) killed the Ya Na.

As a result there was a long argument as to whether or not the prosecution should allowed to re-open the case to adduce additional evidence but the court on December 17, 2010 threw out the prosecution’s application saying they were in possession of the very evidence they are seeking to adduce but failed to bring it before closing its case.

In a related development, Mohamadu Abdulai aka Samasama, the fourth accused person was not in court yesterday.

A police escort officer told the court that Samasama is currently on admission at the Police Hospital in Accra and added that the fourth accused person was admitted last Friday.

The judge asked the police to bring a hospital report to the court to prove that Samasama is indeed on admission.

All the other accused persons, except Zakaria Yakubu aka Zakaria Forest, the seventh suspect who is currently at large, were in court.

They have all pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and with Forest (A7) facing an additional charge of murder.

They are currently on remand in police custody except Iddrisu Iddi aka Mbadugu due to old age.

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 as second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth accused persons respectively.

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 as 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th accused persons respectively.

Since the commencement of the trial, scores of police officers with riot control equipment including weapons have been patrolling the court premises to deter supporters of both Abudu and Andani Gates from physically settling scores.