Alleged murder of GSTS student case to start afresh

A seven-member jury at the Sekondi High Court has again failed to reach a unanimous decision on the case in which Detective Corporal Adjei Shaibu, has been accused of murdering Lawrence John Baidoo,17, a final year student of the Ghana Secondary Technical School, (GSTS) Takoradi, in 2017.

The presiding judge, Mrs Justice Hannah Taylor, therefore, dissolved the jury and indicated that the trial would start from scratch on January 13, 2021.

Cpl Shaibu, 38, had pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and causing harm.

Counsel for the accused, Maxwell Owusu, said prosecution had failed to establish a linkage between the shooting incident leading to the death of the student, and the injury of Kwabena Dukpor.

He submitted that accused did not fire weapon leading to the death of the student.

However, Principal State Attorney, George T. Sackey, told the court Clp Shiabu of the Inchaban Police Station caused unlawful harm leading to the death of the student.

Mr Sackey recalled that in December, in 2017, accused was riding a motorcycle escorting Lydia Armah,  the wife the friend of accused, who was driving a car from Inchaban to her house at Nyankrom, near the deceased’s parents’ house.

 At that time, the deceased and his four friends were walking home from Nyankrom, New Site towards Shama Junction and upon reaching a spot at a junction on the main road, they met accused escorting Lydia with the motorbike.

Mr Sackey continued: “The accused screamed thieves and started firing a gun at the friends. The deceased and Kwabena Dukpor were hit by pellets and they suffered injuries. The victims were taken to the Benedict Hospital at Inchaban where Baidoo was pronounced dead and Kwabena Dukpor referred to the Efia Nkwanta Regional Hospital, Sekondi for further treatment.”

 After the shooting of the victims, Mr Sackey said, accused gave his gun to a friend for safe-keeping and Dukpor and friends mentioned the name of Shaibu, as the one who fired the gun.