Mobila Butchers: We’re Scapegoats

A confidential Ghana Armed Forces document in the possession of The Enquirer newspaper suggests that the three suspects in the brutal murder of Alhaji Issa Mobila told Military officers that they were scapegoats.

According to the documents, the soldiers told a top military panel that they were very unhappy about the fact that they were “victims” and were being used as “scapegoats.”In the said document, the soldiers gave reasons, which in their opinion might have accounted for their conduct in the brutal murder of Issa Mobila.

The revelations come in the wake of the trial court’s order that the commanding officer of the 1BN should appear in court to explain the circumstances leading to the disappearance of Seth Goka, one of the suspected butchers of Issa Mobila.

The three accused persons, Corporal Yaw Appiah, Private Eric Modzaka, and Private Seth Goka, First Second and Third Accused persons, respectively, who were serving officers at the 6th Battalion of Infantry (Kamina Barracks), were committed for trial for murder at a Tamale High Court.

The three were, however, never sent to court. A fortnight ago, when they were to appear in court for the first time, it was revealed to the court that the Third Accused person, Private Seth Goka, had gone AWOL.

The court, presided over by Mr. Justice Senyo Dzamefe, adjourned the case to Thursday, November 26, 2009 for the military to produce the third accused. However, the military failed to produce Private Goka, whereupon, the judge ordered that the Commanding Officer to the First Battalion of Infantry (1BN).

The Commanding Officer is to appear before the court next Wednesday, December 2, to explain the whereabouts of Private Goka and also the circumstances under which the accused person could not be found. On the first day before the court, the Attorney-General told the court that Alhaji Mobila was arrested by the police one suspicion of having supplied arms that had been used in gunshots on the night of December 8, 2004 and the early hours of December 9th.

Subsequently, the Northern regional Security Council (REGSEC) ordered for Alhaji Mobila to be transferred to Kumina Barracks, where he was brutalized to death five hours later, the court was told.

Alhaji Mobila, who was the Chairman of the Tamale-Bolga Branch of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) and also Northern Regional Chairman to the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) was handed over to the military at Kamina Barracks, in a health condition.

The late Mobila had campaigned for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2004 elections and his killing has been classified by the US State Department as a politically motivated murder.

Source: The Enquirer