Ho Court grants bail to seven, Dec 5, 2007, page34

Story: Tim Dzamboe, Ho

A Ho High court has granted bail to seven persons arrested by the police in connection with the Anlo chieftaincy conflict in which four persons died during a clash on November 1 this year.
The seven, accused of “murder” and “riot with weapon” were bailed at a sum of GHC15,000 each with one surety to appear to the Keta District police once in every two weeks.
The accused persons are Yao Agbemakpor, John Kwawu Sefogah, Aaron Agbota, Kwawu Galley, Francis Adzrah, Prince Wisdom Kpodo and Atsu Afedo with counsel as Mr Ernest Gaewu.
They had been in prison custody since November 2 when they police arrested 75 persons out of which 67 of them were granted a police enquiry bail whist eight of them were remanded in police custody in Ho.
One of the suspects, Israel Kwabla Amenume died in police cells, leaving the seven who were eventually granted bail today.
They first appeared before a Ho District Magistrate court on November 5 and secondly on November 22 but the court presided over by His Lordship. Mr. P.W Amedior declined them bail and advised counsel to apply to the High court for bail.
The high court, presided over by Mr Justice Kofi Essel-Mensah said the case was silent on who actually murdered the constable adding that if all the accused persons kidnapped and murdered the constable then they would have acted in concert.
He said however that a charge of conspiracy was not preferred against the accused persons and that the facts were not supportive of the case.
The judge said the facts of the case were replete with doubts and that in the circumstance of it the charge of murders preferred against the accused was not well laid.
According to him the offence of murder with which the accused were charged was for the sake of convenience only, so as to allow the police ample time to conduct investigations into the whole affair.
Mr Essel-Mensah said the irony in this application was that as the prosecution was seeking to do justice to bring the perpetrators of the heinous crime to book, grave injustice of unfathomable proportions was being done to the applicants.
The chief state attorney for the Volta Region, Mrs Felicia Okyere-Darko who prosecuted said the state was opposed to the application for bail and had filed an affidavit in opposition.