Friends and family members of four persons standing trail in a Bolgatanga High Court, in connection with the Bawku conflict, on Friday July 29, 2011 said the continuous stay of their brothers in remand is questionable.
They said they suspected interference by some hidden hands from the ruling NDC party.
As they spoke aloud among themselves outside the court yard, the relatives and friends of the four suspects asked why one Majeed Awal, who was also arrested in Bawku and charged with the same offence of murder, around the time the four were arrested, had been granted bail and their brothers denied bail.
The four, Safianu Yussif, Sani Mustapha, Abubakari Yakubu and Rahmani Yahaya, are being tried for murder and at the time they appeared in court last Friday, they had been in remand for over two years.
The case was however adjourned to10th and 11th October 2011.
The four were arrested in February 2008 and granted bail after being in remand for about a year.
However, their release coincided with some disturbances in the Bawku municipality around that time. They were subsequently re-arrested for reasons that can only be explained by the police.
A family member, Abdul Yussif, told Daily Guide that in some of the appearances of the four suspects in court, the complainant, Majeed Awal, did not appear in court for his role in the trail, stressing that it could be a deliberate attempt to prolong the trail and keep the suspects on remand.
Lawyer Obiri Yeboah, who is a counsel for the suspects, did not agree with the assertion of the friends and family members of the suspects, over claims of interference by hidden hands from the ruling National Democratic Congress, but was of the opinion that his clients had been on remand for far too long and therefore deserved bail.
Source: Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Bolgatanga
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