THE PROSECUTOR handling the case of two men who have been accused of murdering the British/American Missionary, Rev. Sidney Thomas Barnes, yesterday informed a District Magistrate Court that all was set for the accused persons to be committed for murder.
The accused persons are Kofi Seidu, a driver and Rev. Padmore Goodwill, caretaker of Prestige Secretarial and Computer School at Koforidua.
Issaka Mohammed, who was charged together with the two, has since been discharged after an advice from the Attorney-General’s department suggested that there was not enough evidence to incriminate him.
Seidu and Rev. Goodwill are facing two counts of conspiracy and murder.
The said committal was supposed to have been done yesterday at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) magistrate court presided over by Ali Baba Abature, but DSP Cletus Abadamlora told the judge that the State Attorney who had been assigned said he would need a week to prepare for that.
The judge subsequently adjourned the matter to March 21.
Facts at the court, as presented by DSP Cletus Abadamlora, are that the deceased was a British-America national who had lived in Ghana since 1997.
He had since established a church called Cross Road Christian Mission Incorporated at Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital, where he lived.
He also had a pawpaw and pineapple farm at Akwamu-Amanfo near Nsawam Adoagyiri, where the first accused, Kofi Seidu, was the manager. The murdered Man of God also owned the Prestige Secretarial and Computer School where the second accused, Pastor Padmore Goodwill, was the principal.
Rev. Sidney Barnes, 75, took leave to the Americas on December 27, 2009 and was to return to Ghana on March 18, 2010.
Pastor Goodwill, on March 17, gave Seidu money to repair an old Land Rover vehicle with registration number WR418P, to pick the American missionary from the Kotoka International Airport on arrival the following day.
Early the next day, March 18, Seidu went to Pastor Goodwill and took a sum of GH¢50 to fuel the vehicle.
Pastor Goodwill then quizzed Seidu on his early departure to Accra. Seidu explained that he had to go to a few places before picking Rev. Barnes up at night.
At about 11:30pm, Seidu called Rev. Goodwill on his mobile phone that Rev. Barnes had not arrived in the country.
On March 19, 2010, Seidu was spotted at Nsawam Adoagyiri with the Land Rover.
A witness in the case, according to the prosecution, noticed some injuries on both hands of Seidu and quizzed him over how he got injured. He then explained that while travelling with a white friend, they (the white man and Seidu) were involved in a motor accident. He claimed that the white friend was on admission at the St. Joseph’s Hospital in Koforidua.
Suspect Seidu further contacted another witness in the case for that person to administer a tetanus injection to him (Seidu).
However, because the witness had none, he asked Seidu to buy it from somewhere else for him (witness) to administer but Seidu left and never returned.
On that same day, Seidu gave a laptop computer to another witness, who on booting the computer, saw the name of Rev. Barnes boldly inscribed on it and his photo beneath.
The witness also saw a tourist bag in the said Land Rover which Seidu claimed belonged to his white friend.
The disappearance of Rev. Barnes was later reported to the Interpol Unit at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters, Accra.
Seidu was arrested on September 26, 2010 by the Homicide Unit of the CID who later arrested the second and third accused persons to assist in investigations.
On October 4, 2010, Seidu, who had earlier denied any knowledge of Rev. Barnes’s disappearance, confessed to murdering and burying him in a well on his farm.
Seidu, on October 11, 2010, led a team of investigators and pathologists from the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital to exhume the body from a well on the Mana Mission Farm where he was the manager.
On October 13, 2010, an autopsy was performed on the body.
By Mary Anane
