There was pandemonium at the Abeka District Court in Accra this morning when supporters of the victim of the Alajo shooting incident besieged the court in anger.
The group, clad in red and black attires holding a picture of the deceased claimed they have been informed the accused- Charles Nana Frimpong, the businessman who allegedly shot and killed the artisan at Alajo mechanic yard would not be brought to court.
According to them, they have been told that the accused who has been charged for murder is indisposed.
The agitated crowd suspected to be colleagues and some family members of the deceased, Richard Yaw Boadi, 33, served notice that they would go to the Tesano Police Station also in Accra to register their protest about developments in the trial.
Habeas Corpus
Later in the trial, the court heard that Charles is unwell.
The prosecutor, Chief Inspector Hanson Armah, said the case investigator has informed him about the sickness of Charles.
He said, as a result, the accused had been taken to the Nsawam Prisons Hospital for medical attention.
But the trial magistrate, Ms. Victoria Guansah, said: “at the next adjourned date, dead or alive I want to see him (Charles).”
Case adjourned until October 16.
The deceased reportedly lost his life during verbal exchanges over wrong parking with Charles. The victim was rushed to the Ridge Hospital and was receiving treatment until he died recently.
In the autopsy report, the artisan’s right kidney and colon were removed because they were badly damaged by stray bullet.
According to C/Insp. Armah, on August 8 this year at the Alajo railway crossing, the accused murdered one Richard Yaw Boadi, a mechanic.
He said one Dr. Dadzie informed the police that the victim had passed on at the hospital where he was receiving treatment
The 34-year-old mechanic was killed when he reportedly attempted to separate a fight between the accused and a ‘trotro’ driver.
According to reports, Charles, in the course of the fight, shot into the crowd, hitting Yaw Boadi in the abdomen.
After firing the gun, Frimpong allegedly locked himself in his car for fear of being lynched by the incensed mob until the Tesano police arrived at the scene.
The unidentified Sprinter bus driver was reportedly returning from a mechanic shop close to the Alajo rail line while Charles was also heading towards another mechanic shop on the same single and narrow road used by all vehicles.
The accused, who was driving a Hyundai Elantra with registration number GS 190-16, was said to have parked in the middle of the road, thus blocking other motorists.
The Sprinter driver, who was returning from the opposite direction where the accused had parked his car, allegedly shouted at him to move his car since he had blocked the road.
This did not go down well with Charles and so there were heated verbal exchanges.Both the trotro driver and Nana Frimpong reportedly came out of their vehicles to attack each other.
Some traders, mechanics, taxi drivers and commuters, who witnessed the incident, moved to separate the two men. In the process, Charles purportedly pulled a gun from the car and fired shots sporadically. Yaw Boadi was hit by stray bullet in the course of the melee.