YUTONG BUS MASS RAPE SAGA,AMINA FREED FOR WANTS OF EVIDENCE

Amina Mohammed, the young lady who was at the centre of the controversial mass rape and armed robbery incident s on the Kumasi -Tamale highway in October 2010,  was yesterday acquitted and discharged by an Accra Circuit Court for wants of evidence.

The court took the decision after lawyers for Amina filed a submission of no case before the court.

The court presided over by Mrs. Patience Mills-Tetteh,  ruled that the prosecution had failed to establish it case beyond reasonable doubt that, the accused, Amina Mohammed has indeed  published or caused to be published any falsehood information  to caused fear and alarm in the general public .

The court also held that, there was no complainant in the case,  stressing no one has been affected by the accused action and that prosecution had failed to provide evidence that, the accused has indeed caused fear and panic among the general public after hearing it in the media.

The judge held that, the accused narration of the incident to her parent and the radio station could not amount to publication or broadcasting, since she has no any capacity to disseminate, reproduce and broadcast such incident in the form of news to the general public.

Mrs. Mills-Tetteh further said, it was the media that had rather bloated the information to the general public and not the accused, since she was only making report to a media house about what she saw on her way on the day of the incident on the Kumasi to Tamale High way.

 The court said, though all the prosecution witnesses have collaborated in their evidence that, there was an attempt of armed robbery, the accused exaggerated it when she appear before Adom Fm in Accra to narrate the incident.

According to the judge, the burden of proof was in the domain of the prosecution to prove its case beyond doubt, since the accused action by its nature could not pervert the cause of justice without credible evidence.

”What I notice throughout the trial was that, the accused , Amina Mohammed had exaggerated the incident, she went and  narrated it to her parent and then to the Adom FM in Accra, I therefore could not find any evidence from the  facts  to link the evidence given to this court  so far by the witnesses,” the judge held.

On the charge of deceit of public officer, the court held that, there was no evidence by the prosecution to show that, the accused action amounted to deceit of public officer or any persons have been deceived after hearing the incident in the media.

The court said, though accused exaggerated the incident to the media, it also behoove on the media to be guided by its professional conduct by crosschecking information before disseminating it to the general public.

The judge further said, the media should be mindful in its conduct by following its ethics, of fairness’s, accuracy and objectivity in its reportage in order not to take any information for the public consumption.

The court also dismissed the evidence that some NPP bigwigs have conspired and coached the accused to put out the false information to cause fear and panic in the general public and described it as mere allegation with no substance.

The court therefore accordingly, acquitted and discharged Amina Mohammed, for lack of evidence and the submission of no case by the defence sustained.

Amina Mohammed was arrested in October 2010, after she narrated false information that a Yutong bus in which she was travelling on to Tamale was stopped by armed robbers and the men in the bus was forced by the robbers to have sex with the females.

In her story, she alleged that, a 45 year old man was forced to have sex with his 14 year old daughter and after which he collapsed.

She went through full trial and the prosecution closed its docket after calling seven witnesses ,including the driver who was on the steer of the bus when the incident occurred somewhere at Ejisu on the Kumasi  to Tamale road  in the Ashanti region .

The defence led by Professor Kennedy Attefuah, filed a submission of no case after the prosecution has closed it docket for having called in seven witnesses.

According to the defence, the accused do not have a case to answer because there was no complainant to the case and no one has also reported to have been affected by any false news by the accused.

However, after the court ruling, the state prosecutor, Mr. Dominic Bakoma told The Enquirer the state would Appeal against the ruling entirely.

He said, the court has failed to take a look at credible evidence by the prosecution that the accused has indeed published or caused to be published of falsehood information to the Ghanaian public.

The state prosecutor asked rhetorically,” so who brought the famous Amina Yutog bus wanton in this country, who in this country did not hear that, some male  passengers in a Tamale bound bus  was made to have sex with their female passengers.”

He said, he would send the ruling to his boss, the Attorney General and minister of justice for further direction as to the appeal.

Caption: Amina Mohammed(m)  walking out from the court with her lawyers , Prof. Ken Atuafah(R) and Mr. Andy Appiah-Kubi.