Court Orders For Death Certificate Of Mac-Palm

The Accra High Court has ordered for a medical certificate confirming the death of Dr Frederick Mac-Palm, the man accused of orchestrating an alleged coup plot.A three-member panel of the court gave the order yesterday after lawyers of the medical doctor informed the court about his demise.

Per the orders of the court, the medical certificate must be submitted to the court on or before Wednesday, March 29, 2023.

According to the court, as a court of records, it needed proof of the death of the accused person so that all the parties would plan the way forward for the trial.

The medical doctor is said to have collapsed at his home last Saturday and was rushed to a health facility at Dodowa where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Dr Mac-Palm is standing trial with nine others for high treason on allegation of plotting to destabilise and overthrow the government.

All the accused persons have pleaded not guilty.

Death

Counsel for Dr Mac-Palm, Maud Opoku, told the court that family members of the accused person informed him that his client (Dr Mac-Palm) gave up the ghost last Saturday.

Following the revelation by counsel, the presiding judge, Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, a Justice of the Court of Appeal sitting as a High Court judge, asked the prosecutor, Winifred Sarpong, a Principal State Attorney, whether she had any information about the death of Dr Mac-Palm.

The prosecutor answered that the National Investigations Bureau (NIB) had verified from the hospital that the accused person had, indeed, passed away.

“We asked them (NIB) to procure some form of evidence, and they are taking steps to do so,” the prosecutor added.

The court, however, rejected a request by counsel for four of the other accused persons, Victor Adawudu, that the court should not only order for a medical certificate confirming the death, but should include a postmortem to ascertain the cause of death of Dr Mac-Palm.

“In this particular case, we are not going into the cause of death.

We want to find out whether the accused person is dead or alive,” Justice Asare-Botwe said.

Trial

The other accused persons standing trial with Dr Mac-Palm are Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Dr Benjamin Agordzo, Colonel Samuel Kodzo Gameli, Bright Alan Debrah Ofosu (a fleet manager), Johannes Zikpi (a civilian employee of the Ghana Armed Forces) and Donya Kafui, aka Ezor (a blacksmith).

The rest – Corporal Seidu Abubakar, Lance Corporal Ali Solomon, Corporal Sylvester Akanpewon and Warrant Officer II Esther Saan Dekuwine – are all soldiers.

The accused persons are in court for allegedly taking part in the activities of Take Action Ghana (TAG), a non-governmental organisation accused by the prosecution of planning to destabilise the country to take over the government.

Prosecution’s Case

The facts of the case, as presented by the prosecution, were that TAG plotted to destabilise the country and overthrow the government.

The prosecution claims that as part of the plot, Dr Mac-Palm, along with Kafui and Debrah, planned on kidnapping the President, the Vice-President, the Speaker of Parliament and the Chief of the Defence Staff, and to force the President to announce his overthrow.

“Again, there were discussions on whether or not to kill the President in the process of overthrowing the government,” the prosecution said.

The prosecution added that in June 2018, the security agencies picked up intelligence that the accused persons, under the auspices of TAG, had planned to overthrow and take over the government.

It said as part of the plan, Col Gameli recruited Zikpi, who was a signal specialist with the GAF, to help jam the radio signals of the National Communications Authority.

TAG, the prosecution said, planned to jam all radio stations, with the exception of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation.

The prosecution said in furtherance of the plot, Dr Mac-Palm invited Kafui, who was a blacksmith at Alavanyo in the Volta Region to Accra to manufacture explosives and pistols for the group.

With regard to ACP Dr Agordzo, the prosecution said he donated GH¢2,000 to TAG to aid its cause and also drafted a speech for Dr Mac-Palm to be read at a planned demonstration by TAG.

Source: Graphic Online