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Kofi Seidu, a driver and Rev. Padmore Goodwill, caretaker of the Prestige Secretarial and Computer School at Koforidua, who have been accused of murdering a British/American Missionary, Rev. Sidney Thomas Barnes, will on April 24 be put before an Accra High Court to face murder related charges. Mrs. Evelyn Keelson, a State Attorney, yesterday informed the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) magistrate court presided over by Ali Baba Abature that they had finished preparing the bill of indictment. According to her, she had attached statements by the accused persons to the summary of the evidence the prosecution would lead in court and had subsequently served the accused persons copies. The trial judge gave the accused persons the opportunity to defend themselves on the two charges of conspiracy to commit crime and murder leveled against them after informing them that whatever they said would be used against them in the trial. The magistrate, after listening to their defence, indicated that they had a case to answer and therefore ordered the registrar of the court to transfer the committal proceedings to the High Court for trial. Kofi Seidu earlier had made an open confession in which he narrated how the man of God was killed in cold blood and buried on his own (Rev. Barnes) farm at Akwamu, near Nsawam. According to him, Rev. Barnes was killed by two guys hired by one Issaka Mohammed under the instruction of Pastor Goodwill. He disclosed that he and Issaka had dropped the two guys at a place around Aburi Mountains to wait for them to bring the victim from the airport so they could perpetrate the act. He revealed that he went with Issaka to the airport to pick Rev. Barnes. On reaching the spot where they were to carry out the operation, he stopped the car and pretended that it had developed fault. According to him, when he got down from the car to check what the problem was, the two hired killers came out from their hideout, attacked the British pastor and eventually killed him and upon the advice of Issaka buried him on the farm. He said they found only $3,000 in the victim�s wallet and gave same to Rev. Goodwill the next day. Rev. Goodwill, he alleged, gave him half of the amount and he gave all the money to Issaka to share with the guys because Rev. Goodwill had promised him that he would get more money from Pastor Barnes�s friends through emails. The magistrate however observed that there had been some contradictions in his narration since he had earlier told the court that it was Issaka who hit Rev. Barnes with a crowbar, killing him instantly. The said Issaka has already been discharged by the prosecution after observing that there was not enough evidence to incriminate him. Mrs Keelson, the state attorney, told the court that the deceased was a British-American national who had lived in Ghana since 1997. Rev. Barnes established a church, Cross Road Christian Mission Incorporated at Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital, where he lived and had a pawpaw and pineapple farm at Akwamu-Amanfo near Nsawam Adoagyiri where Kofi Seidu, was the manager. The murdered man of God also owned the Prestige Secretarial and Computer School where Pastor Padmore Goodwill was the principal. She narrated that Rev. Sidney Barnes, 75, on December 27, 2009 went to America and was to return to Ghana on March 18, 2010. Whilst in the US, he constantly communicated with his employees, particularly Pastor Goodwill, for which on March 10, 2010, he informed Rev. Goodwill that he would be returning to Ghana on March 18 by British Airways and requested that Seidu pick him up from the airport on arrival. Rev. Goodwill carried out the instruction but the prosecutor said Goodwill claimed he received a call from Seidu at about 10:30pm that the deceased was not among the passengers who arrived on board the British Airways flight and from then they did not hear from the deceased or receive information about him. Mrs. Keelson stated that sometime in May 2010, friends and partners of the deceased in the US became worried about his wellbeing because they had lost all contacts with him since he left US. Through the efforts of the said friends and partners, one Donne Pouguini, a Ghanaian living at Nkawkaw, managed to get into contact with the church at Koforidua where he met Rev. Goodwill who also informed him that they had also lost contact with the deceased since the day he said he was coming to Ghana. In June, Donne Pouguini and Rev. Goodwill lodged a complaint with the police in Accra and the police started investigations into the disappearance of the missionary with several publications in the media. According to the prosecutor, their investigation revealed that the deceased flew from the US on board the British Airways flight to London using an electronic ticket number 1257465295192 and checked into the Comfort Hotel at Heathrow. Enquires at the Ghana Immigration Service revealed that the deceased arrived in Ghana on March 18, 2010 and checked out through immigration at about 10:30pm. Based on this information, Seidu was arrested but denied knowledge of the whereabouts of the deceased. However, on October 4, Seidu confessed that the deceased had been killed and stated that it was Rev. Padmore who persuaded him to kill the deceased to take away all the money he was bringing from the US. Seidu allegedly said after the deceased had been killed, he found $3,000 in his bag which he took to Rev. Goodwill who gave him half of the amount. The state attorney said on October 2010, Seidu led a team of pathologists and investigators to the farm at Akwamu where he had buried the deceased. The body was exhumed and sent to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital where an autopsy report suggested that he died as a result of multiple stab injuries.