It said what the government received was a narration of an alleged eyewitness who spoke to Mr Victor Smith, now Ghana’s Ambassador to the Czech Republic, but not a tape on the actual murder.
On a campaign tour of the Northern Region with Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, a former First Lady, Mr Adams said there was no justification for the government’s inability to find the killers of the Overlord of Dagbon.
He alleged that a tape which could lead to the arrest and prosecution of the killers of the late Overlord was in government’s custody.
However, a Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, denied the claims and said, “What we received was a narration of an alleged eyewitness which was video-recorded by Mr Smith and presented to the Attorney-Generals Department.”
“We assessed the video recording and observed that it was a narration that cannot serve as material evidence in any court of law,” he stressed.
Mr Ablakwa described the statement attributed to Mr Adams in Tamale as irresponsible and an attempt to incite the people of the north against the government.
Ya Na Andani was murdered in March 2002 with about 30 of his elders during a three-day siege of his Gbewaa Palace in what appeared to be animosity between the rival Andani and Abudu gates in the chieftaincy dispute.
Mr Ablakwa reaffirmed President John Evans Atta Mills’s commitment to unravel the mystery surrounding the killing and help arrest the perpetrators.
Early this year, security personnel rounded up 41 people during a swoop in the Yendi municipality in a bid to arrest the suspected murderers of the Ya Na.
The suspects were screened at Bimbilla and six of them were sent to Accra for further investigations, while 33 others were given self-cognisance bail.
In a subsequent trial in March this year, the Accra Fast Track High Court acquitted and discharged 15 people accused of allegedly conspiring to murder the Ya Na.
The government has since filed a notice of appeal against the High Court ruling.
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