Christ the King Catholic Parish,

P.O. Box 28, Sandema. Via, Navrongo

Upper East Region.
Ghana.
Tel: +233 24 410 5355
Email: robertasekabta@gmail.com

1 Easton Street,
London,
WC1X 0DW,
UK

Telephone +44-20-74135500

Dear Sir/Madam,

PETITION
ABUSE OF GREGORY AFOKO’S HUMAN RIGHTS
This petition seeks to outline events leading to the arrest of Gregory Afoko for the alleged
murder of Adams Mahama, the former Upper East Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic
Party (N.P.P.) the present ruling party in Ghana, the trial, the motive alleged by the
prosecutor, the interference by the NPP in the trial through Lawyer Anamoo, the current
Upper East Chairman of the NPP, the abuse of the legal process and bureaucracy to detain
and deny Gregory Afoko of his basic human rights, the abuse of the police service towards
Gregory Afoko and the total disregard of the Judicial decisions. How all this is done simply
to settle political scores within the in-fighting of the NPP using an innocent Proxy - Gregory
Afoko.
At dawn of May 21, 2015, Gregory Afoko was arrested at his house while in bed in the same
bedroom of his bedridden ailing father (whom he was taking care of). During the time of his
arrest, the house was searched, clothing seized and his personal bedroom sealed by the police
officers (names can be provided if needed), two other suspects were named. Gregory was sent
to Tamale police station and his statement was taken (He did not write it). He was not
allowed to correct the written statement. From there he was transferred to Accra and charged
with the murder of Adams Mahama. One of these suspects fled and the other who allegedly
bought the acid which was the substance poured on Adams was let go by the police because
they had no such evidence. Gregory was eventually sent to Nsawam Medium Security prison
while awaiting trial. During this time Gregory suffered various ailments and had to undergo
surgery. This was only possible through judicial intervention. Due to delays by prosecution
and other reasons, he has been in detention for over four years. During this time while the
trial was ongoing his attorney applied for bail, but was denied by the trial judge.
After four years of detention and trial, several witnesses examined and crossed examined,
after several pieces of evidence presented to a jury, after both the prosecution and defence
resting their cases, the Attorney General filed a nolle prosequoi to discontinue the trial before
the judge could direct the jury to deliberate. Without direct knowledge of the Judge, without
following the procedures for releasing detainees, the police went to Nsawam prisons and
forcibly removed Gregory from the custody of the prison (who incidentally also didn’t have
the proper documentation to release Gregory but were ordered to do so verbally) in his boxer
shorts at night and sent to the cells of the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI). Even
though the Police and the prosecutors knew Gregory had attorneys on file representing him,
they arraigned him before a different court and charged with the same offenses. The only
difference was the addition of the fugitive suspect.
Incidentally, the allegations the prosecutors presented during the aborted trial was that
suspects Gregory Afoko and the fugitive, stopped the deceased around 11pm at the Bolga-
SSNIT flats (no one was witness to this and there was no testimony that Adams told anyone
this) and had acid poured on him. The deceased then drove his car to his house screaming and
strangely enough the wife came out with gloves to pull him out of his vehicle. None of the
immediate neighbours heard the commotion. The deceased wife’s neighbours some houses
away came to help her take her husband to the hospital, while she went back into the house to
prepare herself to follow up. Whilst in the car, it was only the deceased who was praying.
Only the deceased wife and her neighbours who came over to the house ever heard the
deceased mention the names of the accused, this supposedly was whispered to them in the
emergency room without any other witnesses but by these two. Subsequently the container in
which contained the acid was identified by the wife and presented to the police, even though
the alleged attack took place somewhere else without witnesses.
During the trial, the motive which the prosecutor stated for the murder by Gregory Afoko of
the deceased was for political reasons. According to the prosecutor, the accused brother, Mr
Paul Afoko, the then National Chairman of the NPP, was prevented from addressing party
executives because the deceased believed Paul Afoko was going to campaign against the then
Presidential candidate and now president of Ghana, Nana Akuffo Addo. It was this denial of
Paul Afoko to address the party executives that so vexed his brother that he colluded with
others to murder Adams. In fact, Lawyer Anamoo, who was mentioned earlier and is the
successor to the deceased, actively solicited funds from the NPP to help the prosecutors
prepare witnesses for trial. Anamoo defends his action by indicating that Adam died as a
result of party activities, therefore, it is the duty of the NPP to help prosecute the accused.
The government, through the information minister held a press conference to defend the
action of the Attorney General for filling the Nolle Prosequi and re arrest of Gregory Afoko
by saying ‘’This has been done immediately with the objective of discontinuing the initial
trial to enable the two accused persons to be tried together to best serve the interest of justice.
The state additionally intends to pray the Chief Justice to assign a dedicated judge for an
expedited trial considering the background of the case. Government assures all Ghanaians
that it will not relent on any efforts to bring the perpetrators of crimes within this jurisdiction
to book”. (Emphasis mine to highlight direct Executive / Government intervention).
In light of these new developments, filing of the Nolle Prosequi, attorneys for Gregory Afoko
made a bail application to the court and it was granted with stringent conditions. In the
process of satisfying the bail conditions, the prosecutors filed a stay of execution of the bail
order and were denied. They repeated the stay of execution at the court of appeal and this was
also resoundly rejected by the appeals court. Thereafter, the family satisfied the bail
conditions despite the numerous bureaucratic obstacles thrown their way. Such as, asking for
valuation two separate times, revealing the names of the sureties to the public through the
media, going onto the premises of the property under false pretences to harass the property
owner etc.
Despite satisfying the conditions of the bail, the police have refused to release Gregory (we
have been informed informally that they cannot release him despite the court order unless
they get orders from above). Gregory’s attorneys have had to file contempt charges against
the police as well as a habeas corpus with the court.
With all this going on, Gregory until last week (after over two months in BNI cells) was
denied visitation by either his attorneys or family. Even to present him with clothes other than
the boxers he was taken with was denied until recently. Even more alarming was the fact that
when the family was finally permitted to visit him, he informed them that blood was forcibly
taken from him without his permission or complaint of any ailment. Subsequently, he was
told he had an infection, as to what sort of infection, he was not informed but prescribed and
given medication without telling him what the medication was to cure. When the family
raised the alarm over this, more stringent barriers have now been put in place to make visiting
Gregory more difficult.
The purpose of this petition is not to request you to interfere in the judicial process. We
believe in the innocence of Gregory. We are rather concerned about the Police/Executive
interference in the judicial process. We are even more concerned about the life of Gregory.
Why should the police take sample of his blood for laboratory analysis when he has not
complained of any ailment to them? Why should they prescribe medication for him after the
so called blood analysis? Why are they refusing to let us know the medical doctor who
diagnosed the ailment as well as the drugs prescribed?
Our fear was heightened by what happened to him on Wednesday, May 22, 2019. Once again
without complaining of any sickness he was taken to the Police Hospital to see “a doctor”. A
supposedly sick person was sent to the hospital handcuffed and guarded by eight (8) well
built and well armed security men. Neither his lawyers nor relatives were informed about
this. When we got wind of this and sent one of the lawyers together with a relative to the
hospital to enquire about why he was in the hospital, after exchanges between the lawyer and
the police officer who sent him to the hospital, he was returned to the cell without seeing any
doctor.
We are appealing to you to use your good offices to ensure that the rights and more
importantly the life of Gregory Afoko is protected. We believe even condemned prisoners
have some rights. Gregory has not been convicted of any crime, he has only been charged
with committing a crime which has not been proven

Yours sincerely,

Robert Atong Asekabta, Esq.

Spokesperson, Ayieta Family, Sandema