OTSIBA AND OTHERS v. THE REPUBLIC

Anin J.A., writing for a three-judge appellate panel, reviewed a brutal killing near Perkyerakyer on 10 October 1970 involving a dispute over a cocoa farm devised by the late Kofi Nkum. The court found that the first appellant pursued Kobina Akrong and, after concealing a gun in his cloth, shot him on a bush path toward Nkum; Akrong fell dead. Under the first appellant’s orders, the second and third appellants assisted in moving the body, and the third appellant decapitated it so the group could bury the head and body in separate shallow graves near a stream, all under threats to remain silent. At trial in Accra, a judge and jury convicted all three of murder. On appeal, the court affirmed the first appellant’s conviction based on credible eyewitness testimony and strong circumstantial evidence supporting intent under Act 29. It held that the second and third appellants’ mere presence and post-mortem assistance did not constitute participation or abetment and quashed their convictions, rejecting the State’s bid to substitute a lesser offence of hindering burial.