About 20 minutes into proceedings, the Financial and Economic Division ‘2’ of the Accra High Court was informed that Warrant Officer II (WOII) Esther Saan Dekuwine, the only female among nine men accused of coup offences, began throwing up.
The court, upon receiving the information, immediately rose, while WOII Esther continued to vomit profusely.
For about five minutes, WOII Esther ejected yellowish liquid from her stomach through the mouth into the court room.
Through the assistance of her counsel, Lamtiig Apanga, and other officers of the court, she was sent to the Accra High Court Complex yesterday for examination and treatment.
The court, presided over by three justices -Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwi, Hafisata Amalebob, and Stephen Oppong – later resumed and indicated that it had been informed that the sixth accused (A6) in the case, WOII Esther Dekuwine, took medicine on an empty stomach.
The President of the panel, Justice Asare-Botwi, told Mr. Apanga that the court had also been told that A6 had been taking light soup.
The learned judge made the latter statement with emphasis to Mr. Apanga, who admitted it but pleaded with the court to adjourn the hearing to Wednesday, 22nd June, 2022 to enable A6 to seek the needed medical care possible.
Before the incident, Anthony Lartey, Counsel for Johannes Zikpi (A4), was finally taking his turn to cross-examine the prosecution 13th witness (PW13), Detective Chief Inspector Michael Nkrumah.
D/C Insp. Nkrumah is an officer with the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB), and the officer who investigated the alleged coup plot.
Mr. Nkrumah had so far answered about nine questions from Mr. Lartey on issues relating to A4, particularly, on the latter’s investigation statement.
When PW13 was asked whether he was present throughout the interrogation of A4, he responded that he was rather there when the statements were taken.
The witness was further questioned that in the Police Service when a word was in brackets did it mean concealed, to which he said yes.
PW13 explained to the court that why he didn’t ask Zikpi to rewrite his statement, even though it contained brackets, was because of the fact that a statement containing brackets did not warrant rewriting.
Mr. Lartey stated that Zikpi’s investigation statement of October 21, 2019, and marked as Exhibit AQ1, contained two words in brackets, a reason the witness requested that A4 rewrite the statement.
But, the witness told the court that was not what he said: “I indicated that the construction [of the sentence] and some of the words are inaccurate. That was why I asked him to rewrite the statement.”
According to Mr. Lartey, the interrogation of A4 took place behind closed doors in the NIB premises, but PW13 answered that statement was not true, and that the interrogation took place at their usual interrogation room.
The court adjourned the case for continuation.
WOII Esther and Zikpi have been accused together with Dr. Frederick Mac Palm, Kafui Donya, Bright Alan Yeboah, Colonel Samuel Kodzo Gameli, Corporal Seidu Abubakar, LAC Ali Solomon, CPL Sylvester Akanpewon and ACP Benjamin Akwasi Agordzor of treason, abetment and conspiracy.
