A CASE in which Christian Adzakro, a 16-year-old boy, allegedly slashed his 19-year-old cousin to death due to the failure of a juju protection they acquired was heard when the Criminal Assizes was opened in Ho in the Volta Region last Monday.
The two teenagers, Adzakro now 20 and Bright Addo, now deceased, approached a herbalist, Moses Tsitey, to seek protection against machete wounds at Lomnava, near Tsito in the Ho Municipality on October 16, 2006.
After the juju man, Tsitey, had pronounced them protected, he gave a machete to Addo to slash Adzakro. The machete bounced off showing that the protection was effective. The operation was reversed and when Adzakro slashed Addo, his right upper arm was completely severed with blood gushing out.
Addo was then rushed to the Ho Municipal Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Adzakro and Tsitey were subsequently arrested by the police and have since been on remand at the Ho Prisons for four years.
Both suspects pleaded not guilty to two charges of abetment to manslaughter and manslaughter before the Ho High Court, presided over by Justice Essel Kofi Mensah, and were granted bail in the sum of GH¢20,000 to re-appear on February 22, 2010.
The suspects were represented by the president of the Volta Regional branch of the Ghana Bar Association, Mr Ernest Yao Gaewu.
That was the first of the 32 cases before the Criminal Assizes. They are made up of 21 murder, eight rape and three manslaughter cases.
The Volta Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) David Ampah Benin, said at the opening ceremony that it was pathetic the Volta Region should be leading in murder cases throughout the country.
He was happy that the Assizes had opened to relieve the police, who had been over-stretched in their duties.
He gave the example of his men having to carry suspects from Jasikan to the Kpando Prisons, a distance of about 50 kilometres, amid transport difficulties whenever the criminals were arraigned.
Mr Al-Hassan Legibo, the Volta Regional Commander of the Ghana Prisons Service, was also happy that the assizes would relieve them of remand cases, which constituted three quarters of their inmates.
Mr Gaewu said they would give as much assistance as possible to the cases in the light of scarcity of their members, mentioning that at the moment, they were only seven in the region.
Opening the session, Justice Anthony Abada, the Supervising High Court Judge, enjoined the jurors to put in their best to ensure the smooth running of the period.
He cautioned that their deliberations should be devoid of acrimony, vindictiveness, and malice, adding, “You should rather be fair and fearless by ensuring that justice is done to all the cases before me”.
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