<<Print>>

Family members of Alhaji Issah Mobilla are peeved with the sentence given to the three soldiers involved in the death of their relative. The Accra Fast Track High Court on Monday sentenced to 10 years each in prison two soldiers: Corporal Yaw Appiah and Private Eric Modzaka who have been standing trial for the past nine years over the killing of the Convention People�s Party�s (CPP) Northern Regional Chairman Alhaji Issa Mobilla. The court presided over by Justice Mustapha Logoh also sentenced in absentia, Private Seth Goka, another soldier involved in the alleged murder and who is currently on the run, to 20 years imprisonment. Alhaji Mobilla was allegedly tortured to death at the Kamina Barracks on December 9, 2004 after he had been transferred from the Tamale Police to a military custody. Alhassan Gaabali, a family member of the late Alhaji Mobilla and a former National Organiser of the CPP in an interview with Kwami Sefa-Kayi on Peace FM's "kokrokoo" programme Tuesday, expressed his repugnance at what he suspects to be a cover up. According to him, the soldiers did not just get up to kill Issah Mobilla; �certainly some people ordered them to do what they did�. �Who gave the military the authority to come for him; who gave that directive? The outcome of this investigation, should have exposed those who gave the directive for Issah Mobilla to be handed over to the military...they are shielding certain personalities which is not the best for us and the investigations should have revealed it. These soldiers did not act on their own,� he said. The aggrieved man also added that the sentence given to the soldiers �was too mild�. He blurted that looking at the gruesome way in which their relative was murdered; the soldiers should have been made to have a taste of their own medicine. �This sentence should have served as a deterrent for any other person not to misbehave or take the laws into their own hands. After ten years these people will come out and then what next? At least these people do not deserve to live. They should have also been hanged or sentenced to life imprisonment...honestly speaking the sentence is too mild..." he added. According to him, even though their request will not bring Issah Mobilla back, �these people do not deserve to live. They should also go� He also indicated that they will be meeting as a family to decide on the next step to take; whether to make an appeal or to petition the President because �honestly we the family members are not happy�