AG calls for new judge in Ya Na Murder Trial

Martin Amidu is the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in Ghana
Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Saturday April 9, 2011
The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Martin Amidu wants the Court of Appeal to order a re-trial of the Ya Na’s case under a new judge.
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 resided over by Justice EK Ayebi of the Court of Appeal sitting as additional High Court judge.
The acquittal and discharge of the 15 men all from the Abudu gate in the protracted chieftaincy dispute in Yendi the traditional capital of Dagbon, has sparked heated political debate as a result of which the administration of justice has virtually come under siege, heating the political atmosphere.
The application for re-trial was in the form of a notice of appeal the AG filed on Thursday before the Court of Appeal in Accra.
In the notice deposed to by Ms. Gertrude Aikins, Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) the AG said the prosecution is appealing the whole ruling where they will 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 EK Ayebi sitting as an additional High Court Judge.”

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

In the grounds of appeal, AG said the trial judge erred in law in admitting the alleged proceedings of the Wuaku Commission as evidence with which to contradict the conclusive judgment of the adverse findings made by the Wuaku Commission under article 280 of the Constitution, 1992.

“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 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 learned trial judge erred in law in admitting the Record of Proceedings in the Republic vrs. Yidana Sugri and Iddrisu Gyamfo case as evidence for purposes of contradicting the evidence of the Prosecution witnesses in the face of the fact that that trial was inconsistent with article 280 of the Constitution, 1992 and the adverse findings contained in the Report of the Wuaku Commission.”

He said judge erred in law when he held that the charge of conspiracy to 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 AG said the trial judge 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 learned trial Judge disabled himself from appreciating the true meaning of the expression ‘no evidence’ as used in section 271 of the Criminal and other offences (Procedure) Act, 1960 (Act 30) in arriving at the erroneous conclusion that there was in law no evidence against the Respondents to call upon them to open their defense.”

The AG said the judge’s ruling “has occasioned a substantial miscarriage of justice.”

Those on trial were 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 as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th accused persons respectively.
The rest were 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.
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.
Since the trial Fast Track High Court, Accra, presided over by Justice EK Ayebi of the Court of Appeal on March 29, 2011 upheld the 15 men’s application for ‘Submission of no case’, the judiciary and the trial judge in particular have been subjected to incessant verbal abuse by elements in the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) who were dissatisfied with the ruling.
As if that was not enough, the Andani faction in the dispute also hit the streets of Accra on March 4, 2011 to demonstrate against the ruling, pressurize the judiciary into giving justice to the late Ya Na’s family and the judges on that day had to abandon the law courts for fear their lives as a result of the action of the group which calls itself Northern Youth for Justice.

The NDC has politicized the killing of the Dagbon Chief, promising to fish for the killers.
At page 34 of the NDC’s manifesto titled: “A better Ghana – Investing in people, jobs and the economy” and with sub-title “Protecting the people”, the party promised to among other things “Set up a new and truly non-partisan and independent Presidential Commission to re-open investigations into the murder of Ya Na Yakubu Andani II and his elders in March 2002.”
The NDC also used the issue of the late Ya Na extensively in their campaign to win power in the 2008 general elections. NDC founder and former President Jerry John Rawlings was very vocal over the Ya Na issue calling for the jailing of the suspected killers.
However, instead of opening fresh investigations into the matter the NDC government arrested 15 people suspected to have been involved in the murder of Ya Na in Yendi and put them before a court in Accra.
The Abudus and Andanis have been engaged in a protracted chieftaincy dispute and it reached a deadly height leading to the death of the Ya Na and 29 others between March 25 and March 27, 2002.