The court has resumed hearing of the Kasoa ritual killing case before it.
The two teenagers, Felix Nyarko and Nicholas Kini have been standing trial since 2021 after the duo were arrested in connection with the killing of Ishmael Mensah.
The trial was postponed due to the absence of a juror in court.
According to the jury foreman, the aforementioned juror had written to disqualify himself from the proceedings.
Nevertheless, the judge ignored the application since she had not read the letter, instead threatening to issue a bench warrant for the juror if he failed to show up on the postponed date [March 13, 2023].
But when the case was called on Monday, the Registrar of the court explained that even though the letter was received, he could not confirm the particular court the juror was assigned to, the reason the letter was not brought to the attention of the judge.
Despite this new information, the juror continued to be empanelled as he explained that he has rescinded his decision not to be part of the panel. With that out of the way, the prosecution was allowed to call its first witness, the father of the deceased, Frank Mensah Abdallah.
Mr Abdallah who lives in Krachi Nkwanta in the Oti Region in his testimony indicated that days before the incident, his son reached out to him asking him to return home.
A father’s quest to spend time with his son was cut short as a result of his untimely death. This was the testimony of the father of Ishmael Mensah who was killed allegedly by the two teenagers in Kasoa for money rituals.
According to him, his son informed him through a phone call that “Daddy it’s been a while since you visited us, we miss you”.
He recollected that this made him embark on a two-day journey from Krachi Nkwanta to Kasoa to spend time with his family.
Upon getting home and exchanging pleasantries with family members including his son, the witness claimed that he decided to take a little rest. But little did he know the pleasantries will be the last time he will see his son alive.
He claimed that a few hours after lying in bed, his wife run into the room shouting “Daddy, Daddy, Ishmael has been killed”.
The witness testified that he left the house to see his son’s lifeless body in an uncompleted building. According to him, that was when the father of the first accused dragged the two accused persons to the place and asked them to confess to what they had done.
Mr. Abdallah testified that the two accused persons then accused each other of being behind the killing.