The trial court in the alleged coup plotters’ case has dismissed objections to purported confession statements by the blacksmith, Donya Kafui, alias Azor, and admitted the same into evidence.
By this, the prosecution will rely on the said statements to push the Court to find the blacksmith guilty of the treason felony charge.
The lawyer for Kafui Donya, Victor Kojoga Adawudu, told the Court that the statement had been coerced from the witness, and so the statements were not voluntarily given.
It was Mr. Adawudu’s argument that Kafui Donya, a born and bred Ewe who continues to live all his life in Alavanyo neither spoke nor understood Twi and so couldn’t have given a caution statement in Twi as presented by the investigators and prosecutors.
He also told the 3-member Court with Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe as President, that the accused person was illiterate, and that he was made to thumbprint the statement under duress.
Further, Mr. Adawudu argued that there was no independent witness present at the time the investigator was taking the statement.
The Court however held that the basic principle in determining the admissibility of a statement was whether the witness voluntarily gave the same or not.
And that the mere fact that the statement was witnessed by an official of the National Intelligence Bureau(NIB) did not offend the rules on evidence.
Reading the ruling of the Court, Her Ladyship Asare-Botwe said that the prosecution showed that the statements were taken voluntarily under oath.
The Court however said that the decision of the accused person not to mount the box on the issue, though well within his right, raised questions of credibility, and did not further his cause.
