High court discharges Gregory Afoko after 11-year trial

The High Court in Accra has discharged Gregory Afoko, who had been accused of murdering Adams Mahama, the former Upper East Regional Chairman of the NPP.

This decision comes after nearly eleven years of trial proceedings.

The court also discharged the second accused person, Asabke Alangdi, who had already been convicted in an earlier trial.

Justice Marie-Louise Simmons, who presided over the case, explained that the decision was necessary because the trial had stalled for months, with repeated adjournments caused by the prosecution.

This third trial followed a second trial that ended with a hung jury.

The third trial began in 2024 based on a Bill of Indictment filed in March 2019.

The pleas of Afoko and Asabke were taken on January 18, 2024, and a new jury was empanelled.

Between April 12 and November 24, 2024, the prosecution presented only five of its sixteen listed witnesses before proceedings came to a halt.

Justice Simmons noted that the case had suffered six adjournments at the request of the prosecution.

Although the State had indicated that a decision was being made about the case, no progress had been made, and jurors continued to report for duty with the State having to pay or prepare to pay their allowances.

On December 1, 2025, the seventh or eighth adjournment with no action, no prosecutor appeared in court to explain the situation. Only five of the seven jurors were present.

Given these circumstances, the judge said she had no option but to discharge the accused persons and dissolve the jury, thanking the jurors for their service.

Afoko had earlier been granted bail on February 21, 2025, after spending nearly a decade on remand.

The court granted him GH₵500,000 bail with two sureties, which prosecutors did not oppose.

His previous trial ended in April 2023 with a 4–3 hung jury verdict in his favour.

Afoko and Asabke were accused of pouring acid on Adams Mahama on May 20, 2015, leading to his death. Afoko is a brother of former NPP National Chairman Paul Afoko, who was suspended from the party in 2015.

Background to the case

According to the prosecution, tensions began in May 2015 when Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyepong, then NPP National Chairman and General Secretary, travelled to Bolgatanga for a meeting.

The deceased, Adams Mahama, allegedly mobilised a group to prevent them from meeting, accusing them of undermining the party’s presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo.

The prosecution said that after this confrontation, Gregory Afoko and Asabke formed another youth group to counter threats against party members believed to support Akufo-Addo.

They allegedly held several meetings and later ambushed Mahama outside his home on May 20, 2015.

The prosecution claimed that when Mahama returned home around 11:10 p.m. and parked his vehicle, Afoko and Asabke approached and asked him to roll down his window.

When he did, they allegedly poured a substance suspected to be acid on him and fled on a motorbike.

Mahama’s wife, Hajia Zenabu Adams, who came to his aid, also sustained burns.

She told investigators that her husband identified Gregory and Asabke as the attackers before he was rushed for treatment.

Mahama later died while being airlifted to Accra.

A post-mortem report stated that he died from shock to the lungs and severe acid burns.

Police arrested Afoko shortly after the attack.

Asabke fled with his wife, leaving their baby behind, but was later arrested.