Private legal practitioner, Martin Luther Kpebu, has welcomed the Attorney-General’s decision to review Gregory Afoko’s case to arrive at a decision in the coming days.
The lawyer says Mr. Afoko had been treated unfairly by the Akufo-Addo administration due to the fracas between the former President and Paul Afoko, brother to Gregory.
On TV3’s Ghana Tonight Wednesday, February 12, 2025, host Alfred Ocansey disclosed to Mr. Kpebu that he raised the issue before the Attorney General, Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, who indicated that Afoko’s memo is before him and would be reviewed and come with a decision in the coming days.
In his reaction, Martin Kpebu averred that Afoko deserves to walk a free man or at minimum, a bail, rather than the inhumane treatment meted out to him by former President Akufo-Addo due to the issues he has with his brother, Paul Afoko.
“We pray that Gregory walks free or minimum he gets bail. Akufo-Addo has punished Gregory Afoko for too long. Because he has a beef with Paul Afoko, Gregory’s brother, so we pray Dr. Ayine will do the needful, will give Gregory Afoko justice,” Kpebu expressed.
Afoko is facing trial for his alleged involvement in the murder of former New Patriotic Party’s Upper East Regional Chairman, Adams Mahama.
Meanwhile, his alleged conspirer, Asabke Alangdi, has been convicted and sentenced to death and was billed to be retried on the charge of murder.
This was the ruling of the Criminal Division of the Accra High Court presided over by Justice Maries-Louis Simmons in the case in which Afoko was to be retried for the third time in eight years on the charge of conspiracy and murder.
In a ruling Tuesday, December 5, 2023, Justice Simmons acknowledged that the Attorney-General had the power to determine who to initiate a case against and said it would be unfair for Afoko to stand trial alone on the charge of conspiracy to murder, and murder.
Context
In April 2023, a seven-member jury of a court presided over by Justice Merley Afua Wood, a Justice of the Court of Appeal sitting as an additional High Court judge, returned a final verdict which unanimously found Asabke Alangdi guilty on the charge of conspiring with Gregory Afoko to kill Mahama in 2015 but returned a 4 – 3 verdict of not guilty on the charges of conspiracy to commit murder and murder for Afoko.
By the verdict, the two were not guilty of the offence of murder.
Alangdi, was however guilty of the offence of conspiracy to commit murder, leading the court to proceed to pass the mandatory sentence of death on Alangdi which he had since appealed the decision.
While Justice Wood ordered the retrial of Afoko, she did not order a retrial for Alangdi.
Appearing before a differently constituted court presided over by Justice Simmons in November 2023 for the trial to re-start, Afoko through his lawyer challenged the decision of the prosecution for a retrial of Alangdi on the charge of murder without an order or retrial from the previous court.
Stephen Charway was of the view that there was no way the state could begin a retrial of Alangdi since the previous court did not explicitly state that he should be retried alongside his client.
But the prosecution led by Marina Appiah Opare told the court that the previous trial court inadvertently omitted to order the retrial of Alangdi on the charge of murder adding that Alangdi should be tried again.
Justice Simmons said the Constitution under Sections 285 and 286 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1960 (Act 30) made provisions for a retrial under such circumstances.
But Alangdi’s lawyer, Andrew Vortia, has vowed to challenge the court’s decision of a re-trial of his already convicted client.
The case has been adjourned to December 21, 2023 for the two to take their pleas.
Asabke Alangdi to be retried with Afoko over NPP Chairman’s murder
