The Tamale District Court would today give its ruling on the case in which a Canadian-based Ghanaian nuclear engineer, Abdul Samed Seidu, is standing trial for the mysterious disappearance of a 31-year-old social worker in Tamale.

Hearing on Monday attracted a large crowd as usual to the court but the judge, His Lordship Kakuunaah Amatus Kapouchieneh, adjourned the case to Tuesday.

Since the disappearance of the victim, who bears the same name as the suspect, on May 14, last month from his private residence in Tamale, the issue has generated a lot of controversy about the actual whereabouts of the victim, a graduate of the University of Cape Coast who worked with the Regional Advisory, Information and Network System (RAINS), a Tamale-based NGO.

The suspect, who is charged with three counts of kidnapping, murder and stealing, has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The facts of the case, according to Assistant State Attorney, Mr Abdul-Kudus, are that, the victim, who was a friend of the accused, welcomed the latter from Canada to his house at Kalpohini Estates in Tamale where he lived alone.

He said the two friends lived together for four days, after which the victim could not be traced and a report was made to the police.

The accused, according to the prosecutor, suddenly abandoned the house and later reported to the police that the victim had stolen ¢30 million belonging to him for which reason he wanted the police to take action. The accused, however, failed to pursue the case after that.

He was said to have been arrested at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra while he went through departure formalities, while a search on him yielded some items known to belong to the missing friend.

But the accused is said to have told police that the items were given him by the missing friend to keep in his custody until he was able to settle his indebtedness to him.


Source: Daily Graphic