COURT ADJOURNS ALHAJI MOBILA'S CASE (PAGE 3)

THE Tamale High Court yesterday adjourned the case in which the former Northern Regional Chairman of the Convention People's Party (CPP), Alhaji Issah Mobilla, was allegedly tortured to death at the Kamina Barracks in Tamale.
The next hearing of the case has been fixed for June 3, this year.
At its sitting yesterday, defence counsel had prayed the court for time to adequately study the case, a request which the court granted.
However, the three suspects in the trial who are said to be in the custody of the Military Command in Tamale did not appear in court.
The court had, on Tuesday, March 24, ordered the Military Command at the 6th Battalion (Kamina Barracks) in Tamale to ensure the transfer of the three soldiers to the Tamale Prison.
The suspects are Corporal Appiah Yaw, Private Eric Modzaka and Private Seth Gokah, who are all with the 6BN in Tamale.
The former CPP chairman was said to have died in military custody a couple of weeks after the 2004 general election. That was after he had presented himself to the police after he had been informed that he was being sought for.
The deceased’s arrest was in connection with claims that he was in possession of weapons. However, upon searches in his car and residence by the police, no weapons were found.
The deceased was alleged to have subsequently been transferred from the Central Police Station to the Military Barracks, where he was allegedly tortured to death by the suspects.
Even though the police had earlier claimed that Alhaji Mobilla had died from an illness, an autopsy report on the deceased by a pathologist from the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi later indicated that he died from multiple internal injuries as a result of torture.
The matter has been of much public interest since 2004, compelling family members and sympathisers of the late Mobilla to appeal for government intervention to ensure justice in the matter.
During the campaigns towards the 2008 general election and later in his last address to Parliament, President John Evans Atta Mills promised the people he would ensure justice in the matter.