Johnson Kombian, the convicted jail breaker and suspected armed robber on trial for allegedly killing two policemen, yesterday opened his defence in an Accra Fast Track High Court and accused the police at Nakpanduri, Northern Region, of being responsible for the death of his mother.
He told the court, presided over by Justice Mustapha Habib Logoh, that the police burnt his house, his mother�s and that of his father in-law when the police were looking for him, adding that his mother died in the process.
The suspect said these in his evidence in-chief in the Twi language through an interpreter led by George Assamaney, counsel for the suspect. He said he had only been convicted once for breaking jail in Tamale but had �never been convicted of any robbery since I was born�.
Kombian stated that he had never stolen a thing belonging to anybody and challenged anyone who had anything on the contrary to prove so in court.
According to him, all his property was burnt by the police who were looking for him �so I have since been homeless�.
He said he was not in Nakpanduri on November 17, 2010 � the day he was alleged to have killed the police officers: Corporals Owusu Frimpong and Prince Agyare � because he arrived from Togo to bury his sister on November 16, 2010 and spent less than 30 minutes before going back, for fear of being arrested.
Counsel Assamaney put the evidence in-chief in question form and asked accused questions about each and every witness� allegation which he (accused person) refuted.
In addition, he told the court that he did not have any problem with the police officers and so he could not have killed them, adding that �I am not chasing their girlfriends nor wives neither are they chasing mine so what would I gain if I killed the police officers?�
Johnson Kombian also said he had gone into hiding in Togo since he broke jail, and claimed that he knew he was a wanted man and so wherever police officers were, he kept his distance because he didn�t want to be arrested.
He said he was surprised by the evidence of the surviving police officer, Cpl Osei Bonsu, that it was he (Kombian) and an alleged accomplice who killed his (Bonsu�s) colleagues and that if he (Bonsu) claimed he saw him (Kombian) and another person, �then he should tell me who the other person was and what he looked like�.
He said the surviving police officer in the alleged shooting incident might have been dizzy and that�s why he seemed to be seeing images like it was he (Kombian) who was shooting at them.
Furthermore, he said he is a Christian, married with four children, and explained that allegations that he went about town asking people at Napkanduri to leave the town because the police were on their way there was false because he had left for Togo on the day of the alleged offence.
Kombian debunked allegations that he had supernatural powers to disappear, saying that if he had had, he would have disappeared and gone home.
On his jail breaking incident, the suspect said he broke jail while in Tamale and escaped to Togo where he stayed for three years with his family and when he returned to Ghana, he was arrested the same night.
Under cross-examination by Marina Appiah, a state attorney, the suspect stated that he knew nothing about the murder of the police officers.
The case has been adjourned to August 19, 2014.
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