An Accra High Court has selected a 7-member jury for the prosecution of Gregory Afoko, a main suspect in the murder of former Chairman of the NPP in the Upper East Region, Adams Mahama.
He has also pleaded not guilty to the charges of conspiracy to commit murder and murder.
Asabke Alangdi, a butcher has also been handed same charges over the death of the governing New Patriotic Party’s Upper East region chairman, Adams Mahama in 2015.
The Court, presided over by Justice Merley Woode has also sworn in a seven-member jury to hear the case.
But the selection of the seven-member jury was not without controversy as lawyers for Afoko raised two main objections during the process.
Stephen Sowah Charway who is holding Osafo Buabeng’s brief for Gregory Afoko, first asked for time to investigate the persons placed in the pool of jurors.
READ ALSO: Afoko bail: Court dismisses A-G’s application
He argued that his client had no idea who these persons were and cannot exercise his right to object to their inclusion.
This was objected to by Chief State Attorney, Marina Appiah Opare who is leading the prosecution team.
She said the request was practically impossible adding that Ghana’s laws do not provide for time to be allowed accused persons to do background checks.
Justice Woode who is hearing the case turned down the request for time saying Act 30 does not provide for that.
Afoko then proceeded to exercise his right to object to jurors three times without reason. He exercised this twice with Asabke Alangdi also exercising same once.
Other Jurors nominated were, however, accepted bringing the number to 7.
Just before they were sworn in, Afoko’s lawyer made another application for time to do background checks once again.
Justice Woode turned down this request on the same basis as the previous following opposition from the state’s legal team.
