THE Sunyani Magistrate Court yesterday granted bail to the Omanhene of the Tuobodom Traditional Area, Nana Asare Baffour II, and his Secretary, Samuel Adjei, who appeared before it on charges of abetment of crime and attempted murder.
The bail was in the sum of GH¢10,000 and a surety each to be justified.
Nana Baffour, a rival Tuobodomhene who owes allegiance to the Golden Stool, and his secretary are alleged to have masterminded the firing into the Techimanhene’s convoy at the outskirts of Tuobodom, near Techiman in the Brong Ahafo Region, on October 8, 2008.
The Techimanhene, Oseadeeyo Akumfi Ameyaw IV, was said to be travelling to Tuobodom in connection with the Yam Festival celebrated by Nana Obeng Ameyaw II, the rival Tuobodomhene and Akyempimhene of the Techiman Traditional Area.
The pleas of the two accused persons were not taken in court and they are to reappear before the court, presided over by Mr Joseph Mensah, on March 16, 2010.
The two, at the outskirts of Tuobodom on October 8, 2008, were alleged to have aided and abetted with five persons who have also been remanded in prison custody by the same court and others now at large to commit the crime.
The five others are Kwaku Addae, Appiah Kusi, Kwabena Macus, Seth Boadu and Kwasi Abraham.
The presiding magistrate, after listening to Nana Obiri Boahen, counsel for the accused persons, decided to grant them bail.
The brief facts of the case, as presented in court by Sgt Faustina S. Anaman, were that the complainant and the victims in the case are the chiefs and the errand boys under the command of the Techimanhene.
She said about 1 p.m. on October 8, 2008, the Techimanhene and his convoy were on their way to Tuobodom for the Yam Festival there.
On reaching the outskirts of Tuobodom, near the Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) School, there was a road block by a group of young men who had laid ambush and who fired indiscriminately into the convey.
Sgt Anaman said as a result of the sporadic gunshots, two persons who were part of the Techimanhene’s convoy sustained injuries and were rushed to the Techiman Holy Family Hospital where they were treated and discharged.
The prosecutor said the suspects then fled the scene, adding that on February 16, 2010, the five accused persons who had been remanded by the same court were arrested.
Sgt Anaman stated that on March 5, 2010, Nana Baffour and his secretary who were among the suspects were arrested, while those at large were being sought for.
In a related development, the circuit court at Fiapre, near Sunyani, presided over by Mr Justice Benjamin Osei, yesterday remanded the eight persons who were arrested for their alleged involvement in last Friday’s communal violence at Tuobodom that claimed the lives of three people and displaced many residents.
The accused, charged for unlawful possession of ammunition and whose pleas were not taken in court, will reappear before the court on March 19, 2010.
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