A-G Frees NDC Anita - After Atiwa Mayhem

A GROUP of people believed to be supporters of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) who were run over by a vehicle belonging to Anita de Souza, National Women�s Organiser of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) during the Atiwa by-election, may not get justice as the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice will not prosecute the suspects. It would be recalled that Anita de Souza and her driver allegedly cruised over nine people at Abomosu in the Eastern Region and sped-off during the election on August 31, 2010, inflicting life-threatening injuries on their victims in the process. However, answering a question on the issue in Parliament yesterday, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Martin Amidu, concluded that the evidence on the case docket could not cogently support the offences of dangerous driving and negligently causing harm contrary to section (1) of the Road Traffic Act, 2004 (Act 683) and section 72 of the Criminal and Other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) with which the suspected driver was cautioned. According to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, it is now up to the victims to seek any redress that they may deem necessary. He was answering a question from the NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for Atiwa, Kwasi Amoako-Atta, on the �status of the alleged case of Anita de Souza and her driver running over nine people at Abomosu during the Atiwa by-election on 31st August, 2010�. Mr. Amidu confirmed that Anita de Souza was in her Toyota Land Cruiser with registration number GE 5440-10 at the time of the incident, contrary to earlier reports that the NDC Women�s Organiser was not with her driver when the gruesome act took place. Nonetheless, he told Parliament that although statements were taken from Anita and her driver, both suspects would not be prosecuted because available evidence did not support their prosecution. Giving the facts of the case, Mr. Amidu said during the voting process in the by-election, there were disturbances allegedly caused by some group of non-residents of the area, perceived to be supporters of NDC which resulted in the injury of a resident, perceived to be an NPP member. Consequently, some residents of Abomosu town, �perceived to be NPP supporters, organised themselves into a vigilante group and gathered on the outskirts of Abomosu, on the road leading from Abomosu to Ekorsu to check and flush out non-residents entering or leaving the town�. According to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, out of seven witnesses who made statements to the police, only four of them gave eyewitness� accounts of what they saw happen during the incident involving the suspects� vehicle. Three of the witnesses, he indicated, alleged that the vehicle was stopped for inspection of its occupants and one out of the three also alleged that it was the police who stopped the vehicle whilst the other two witnesses claimed it was the crowd or mob that stopped the vehicle. Mr Amidu narrated that according to the docket, �Two of the four witnesses are consistent in their allegation that when the mob or crowd saw one Anita, the NDC National Women�s Organiser, on board the front seat of the vehicle, they shouted �this is one of the NDC members� and decided to close the barrier when half of the vehicle had already crossed the barrier at the point it was stopped.� He claimed that one of these two witnesses alleged that the vehicle then drove through the people at top speed and knocked most of them down. The second of the two witnesses also alleged that after Anita was spotted and recognised by some members of the �mob or crowd�, they shouted, �They don�t belong to us� and ordered that the barrier be closed. Mr. Amidu said in the process, �the vigilante group, crowd or mob started pelting stones, sticks and all sort of objects at the vehicle which put the suspect driver and the other occupants of the vehicle in great fear for their lives�. According to him, it appeared from �the docket that it was in the process of escaping the irate vigilante crowd or mob attack on the vehicle and the lives of its occupants that a number of people from the vigilante crowd, mob or bystanders were accidentally knocked down with some sustaining serious injuries�. He indicated that the preponderance of the evidence on the docket leads to one of the irresistible conclusion that �the incensed crowd attacked the vehicle after they had stopped it or slowed it down and one of its occupants was recognised as the NDC Women�s Organiser�. This, Mr. Amidu noted, is further borne out of the fact by the extent of damage disclosed by the accident report as having been caused to the vehicle when it was vandalized by the �crowd or mob�. �It is evident from the docket that the mob or vigilante group or crowd created a very dangerous situation after stopping the vehicle that could not have been foreseen by the suspect driver,� Mr. Amidu concluded.