A retired Military Officer, Joseph Abusah, and a Pastor, Benjamin Kofi Agbetiafah, have been convicted by the High Court in Accra for manslaughter over a misunderstanding of GH₵50 alleged fake money leading to the death of one Solomon Dapaah.
The two were found guilty of conspiracy and manslaughter after a seven-member jury panel had returned guilty verdicts.
For conspiracy, the jury returned a majority 5-2 verdict while on the substantive charge of manslaughter, the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict.
Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, a Justice of the Court of Appeal who was presiding over the court as an additional High Court judge, sentenced them to six months each on both counts, which are to run concurrently.
This was after the Court had considered mitigation factors from defence lawyers and the aggravating circumstances of the case from Yvonne Adomako-Yarchie, a State Attorney.
The brief facts of the case are that A1, Joseph Abusah, is a pensioner while A2 is a pastor. They both lived at New Abladjei, a suburb of Agbogba.
One Comfort Agbetiafah is the mother of A2 and he lived with his mother in the same house.
On March 1, 2018, A1 visited A2, while they were conversing, two men on board a Nissan Micra with registration number GM 4907-12 driven by the deceased Solomon Dapaah aged 32, stopped by the A2’s mother’s provisions shop.
He bought a 7-liter bottle of Fanta at 10 Ghana cedis and paid with a GH₵50.00 note.
After the deceased was given change of GH₵40.00, A2’s mother suspected that the 50-cedi note was fake and raised an alarm after the deceased had driven off.
A1 and A2 chased after the deceased’s taxi with a Nissan pick-up with registration number GT 3098-P driven by A1 to a spot at the outskirts of New Abiadjei where the taxi could not go further.
A1 crossed the deceased’s taxi with the Nissan pickup to prevent him from moving. The other occupant in the deceased’s taxi managed to escape but in an attempt to escape the deceased got trapped in a barbed wire fence.
A1 and A2 pulled him from the barbed wire fence and in the ensuing struggle, they beat him up until he became unconscious.
They tied his hands and legs with a nylon rope and sent him to the Agbogba Police station in the bucket of the pickup to lodge a complaint.
The police, on seeing the swollen face of the deceased and blood oozing from the mouth, escorted A1 and A2 and the deceased to the Agbogba Clinic but the deceased was pronounced dead on arrival.
A post-mortem examination was performed on the deceased on 13th March 2018 by Supt/Dr. Osei Owusu Afriyie at the Police Hospital, Accra.
The Pathologist gave the cause of death as (i) Severe Head Injury and (ii) Lynching, which is an unnatural manner of death.
Based on these facts, the 1st and 2nd accused persons were charged with conspiring to cause the death and causing the death of Solomon Dapaah by unlawful harm and they have been put before the court to determine their guilt.
Mitigation plea
Defence Lawyer in his mitigation plea after the accused persons were convicted submitted that the convicts “have been consistent in court and never missed a court sitting.”
Counsel again indicated to the Court that the convicts are first-time offenders and are not known to the law.
“They are responsible people. They spent more than six months when they were arrested on March 1, 2018,” Counsel submitted.
He submitted that part of the conditions was for them to report to the Agbogba police station and “my engagement with them is that they have done that religiously.”
“We pray the court takes into account the circumstances of the case, and the second accused is a pastor and only just got married.
He has an aged mother who is 73 years old,” he said.
Prosecution
or her part, Yvonne Yaache-Adomako, a State Attorney, submitted that in the Court exercising discretion, it should look at the aggravating circumstances as against the mitigation factors raised by the defence.
She said, “we pray that they get no benefit in taking the prosecution through this arduous and lengthy trial knowing very well what happened on the fateful day.”
The State Attorney said discretion should not only be exercised in favor of the convicts but “the family of the deceased and society as well.”
She said the punishment must reform the offender and appease society and therefore, in the exercise of discretion, the Court should impose a sentence that is deterrent to like-minded people not to engage in any unlawful activity in the country, in that offences have consequences.
Sentencing
Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, a Justice of the Court of Appeal who was presiding over the court as an additional High Court judge, sentenced the convicts to six months imprisonment on each of the two counts, to run concurrently.
She said the Court took into consideration the convicts’ plea for mitigation and submission for the counsel of the republic.
The Court, in doing so, considered the good conduct of the accused persons (convicts) from the beginning of the trial till now and the fact that they have religiously been in Court from when they were arrested (March 1, 2018) till today (February 20, 2026) when they have been convicted.
The Court also took into consideration the six months period they spent on remand and them being first-time offenders, the age of the first accused, the fact the second accused had an aged mother, 73, involved in a mob attack.
The Court also considered the instant justice meted out to people in the community and condemned that in no uncertain terms.
However, considering the period this case has traveled about 9 good years and the fact that the accused have attended court is enough.
