General News of Wednesday, 7 April 2021

Source: 3news.com

Kasoa killings: Prosecutor can’t prove ‘juju’ channels influenced kids – Legal Practitioner

A photo of the two teenagers who killed their friend over the weekend A photo of the two teenagers who killed their friend over the weekend

A private legal practitioner, Christian Malm Hesse, has raised concerns about why it will be difficult for the prosecutor handling the Kasoa ritual murder case, prove his assertions that watching television channels which entertained mallams, could have influenced the action of the suspects.

Two teenagers are facing trial at the Ofaakor District Magistrate Court following their alleged involvement in the murder of a 10-year-old boy on Saturday at Coca Cola, near Lamptey, a suburb of Kasoa in the Central Region.

The suspects are Felix Nyarko, aka Yaw Anane, 16, a mason labourer and Nicholas Kini Kwame, 18, a student.

The Prosecutor, Chief Inspector Ernest Agbo, said the accused – The accused persons were last Saturday arrested following the murder of Ishmael, a Class Four pupil, for ritual purposes.

The facts sheet of the Prosecutor suggests that for some time now Felix had been watching Ghana Television channels which entertained Mallams and other spiritualists to promote their prowess in making people instant millionaires.

But According to Christian Hesse- Malm, no amount of assertions can become a piece of evidence.

“This statement as asserted by the police incorporated into the charge sheets, how is he going to prove them? Does he stay with them? Is a matter he must prove? If you say somebody watches mallam movies on Ghana Television channels how is that verifiable, is it for sensationalism,? he questioned.



According to him, the prosecutor is going to have a lawyer who will punch holes into the argument.

He slammed prosecutors for the sloppy work and that is causing the state to lose cases in court.

“It will be an easy work for a defence council to take them through the mill. Are you going to come with video evidence of the child spending three hours watching mallam movies? Whenever I meet them in court am always dreadful against them because their charge sheets are not always supported and sometimes they feel so pompous and I don’t blame them but to cure it, the pre-requirement must be LLB holders so that if that happens you will have a lot of those people who are unable to go to law school to become lawyers can now become prosecutors”.

The two suspects were remanded in police custody to reappear on April 20, 2021 to allow the prosecutor enough time to gather more evidence.