A footboy of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has craftily wiggled himself out of the Nsawam Maximum Security prison, where he had been sentenced to do time in hard labour for escaping legal Police custody and other offences.
Fuseini Adamu Wala, a rejected claimant to the chiefdom in Awoshie A-Lang Zongo, apparently forged charges of lesser gravity and swapped them with the real charges on which he was sentenced to a year imprisonment, and used them in a Bail Motion to bamboozle a Koforidua High Court judge into setting him free from jail.
Mr Wala, who goes by the nickname, “Namadina” is believed to have pulled a fast one on the judge, and unconfirmed reports on the lips of his close associates, as well as his victims, are that he committed this illegality with the help of his political godmother; Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey.
A notorious criminal element, Namadina, had been convicted to a one-year jail term and to a fine in February, this year, for not only escaping lawful Police custody, but also the unlawful discharge of a firearm and cruelty to animals.
A weightier first-degree felony charge of attempted murder against the same man is awaiting advice from the Attorney General to enable the Odorkor Police to go into prosecution.
Namadina was sentenced to serve a year in hard labour at Nsawam on February 21, 2019, by the Circuit Court One in Accra presided over by Justice Aboagye Tannoh. The same judge had also convicted him to a fine of five penalty unit each on two counts.
The counts, as spelt out in the judgment were “unlawful discharge of a firearm, cruelty to animals and escaping from lawful custody.”
However, after serving less than three months out of his jail term, he and his Lawyer, Paul Assibi Abariga, submitted Motion for Bail, to the Koforidua High Court stating that “he was convicted on the 21st February, 2019 for the offence of defrauding by false pretense and issue of false cheque which conviction was wrongful and sentenced pending to spend a duration of six months IHL and also to a fine of 500 penalty units…”
And on the basis of this Bail Motion and its unrelated charges, Lady Justice Barbara Ward Acquah, granted him bail with the explanation that Namadina, has filed for an appeal.
Her ruling read “There is before me an application for bail pending Appeal. Counsel for the applicant relies on the motion paper and supporting affidavit. The Respondent – The Republic –is not opposed to the application. The Application is granted as prayed. Bail is in the circumstance granted in the sum of GH¢20, 000 with 2 sureties one to be justified”.
Observers have been wondering the reason behind the court’s decision to grant the convicted criminal bail from prison simply because he supposedly filed for an appeal against his conviction.
Interestingly, in spite of the claim that he intends to appeal his sentence, Namadina, has not filed for any appeal or attended any proceedings since his release from jail by the Koforidua High Court presided by Lady Justice Barbara Ward Acquah.
Rather, he and his followers, have allegedly taken to threatening the legally recognized chief of Awoshie A-Lang Zongo.
While threatening Sultan Mohammed Waziru, one Aminu Bonkano, a close associate of Namadina, has allegedly openly bragged on several occasions that their Government is in power now, therefore, even if they kill anybody nothing can be done to them.
The same Bonkano is said to be also bragging in town that his friend Namadina, could not be kept in Nsawam Prison, because the Foreign Affairs Minister, ordered his release.
Namadina was jailed as a result of a near murderous fallout from a chieftaincy dispute with Chief Sultan Mohammed Waziru which began in 2013.
In that year, the people of Awoshie A-Lang Zongo, appointed Sultan Waziru chief. However, the Sempe, (Ga traditional chief of Kwashieman) Mantse Nii Awuley Ahiaku IV, allegedly imposed Fuseini rather as chief.
The people rejected him, resulting in a legal battle at the behest of Fuseini and Nii Awuley, which they lost. They appealed later in March 2019 and lost again.
Prior to losing the appeal, however, Namadina, together with some of his followers, had stormed the Odorgonno Senior High School (SHS) prayer grounds on June 26, 2017, during Eid celebration, and attack his victorious rival with a gun. At close range, Namadina, pointed a pump action gun at Sultan Waziru and shot twice, but missed.
Out of frustration, he pointed the weapon at the horse of the Sultan and gunned it down.
Police personnel, who had been deployed to the area to maintain peace soon overpowered him and yanked the gun from him.
While the Police was doing its work, Aminu Bonkano, Namadina’s ally, alleged called the Foreign Affairs Minister and told her that the NPP man who was a claimant to the A-Lang chieftaincy, had been arrested by the Police and that since their party the NPP is in power, she couldn’t possibly allow his incarceration.
It is not known the reply that the Foreign Affairs Minister gave him, but, the Police, hauled the trigger-happy suspect to the Odorkor Police station and placed him in cells.
However, before the Police would charge him, Namadina’s followers, overpowered the Police and freed him from lawful custody.
He was, however, later re-arrested by the Police and detained, despite pressure from high places in the Akufo-Addo government for the Police to let the matter die.
The Police would subsequently charge him with escaping legal custody, unlawful discharge of a firearm, cruelty to animals and attempted murder.
The suspect was later arraigned before court on the first three of the charges, while the charge of attempted murder was sent to the Attorney General for consideration.
His Lordship Aboagye Tannoh of the Circuit Court in Accra, sentenced him to one year in prison with hard labor, and convicted him to a fine of five penalty units, however, after serving less than half of the sentence, Namadina is back in town because a High Court judge in Koforidua, decided to discharge him from prison on account of totally unrelated charges.
And he has allegedly since picked up from where he last left off to jail –the attempted murder suspect,t has been threatening Sultan Waziru to the murderous extreme.
According to court documents seen by The Herald, Walla’s lawyer, who appeared before the Koforidua High Court, argued on three issues; that “the conviction cannot be supported by the evidence on record”, that the trial judge erred when he failed to consider adequately the defense put up by the appellant, adding that the “the sentence imposed on the appellant was excessive and too harsh”.
