A seven-member jury will begin hearing the murder trial of Safina Adizatu Mohammed, the student accused of killing her Canadian-based boyfriend Frank Kofi Osei, on January 12, 2027.
The High Court in Accra set the date for the commencement of trial and indicated that the prosecution will open its case with its first witness.
The state is expected to call nine witnesses in total.
Safina is on trial for the alleged murder of 37-year-old Osei. She has pleaded not guilty.
According to the prosecution, Osei was a Ghanaian resident in Canada, while Safina was at the time a Level 100 Biological Science student at the University of Ghana, Legon. The two were said to be in a romantic relationship.
The prosecution told the court that at about 5:00 a.m. on July 26, 2022, police at Lakeside Estate, Ashaley Botwe, received a call from Safina reporting a misunderstanding at her apartment at Ashaley Botwe School Junction.
It is alleged that a struggle broke out during the misunderstanding, leading to Osei’s death.
A police patrol team dispatched to the scene found an unregistered white Toyota Tundra pickup parked at the entrance of the apartment block, which investigations later established belonged to the deceased.
The court heard that Osei’s naked body was found lying face down near the driver’s door of the vehicle with multiple stab wounds to the upper torso.
Although the apartment had been cleaned, investigators said they found bloodstains on the wall and traces of blood on the floor, suggesting the body had been dragged out.
Safina was not at the scene when police arrived. She was later traced to Obinim Junction, Ashaley Botwe, and arrested.
The prosecution said Safina, during interrogation, first claimed she stabbed Osei during a misunderstanding in her apartment at about 1:00 a.m. on July 25, 2022. She later changed her account, stating that she had left him in the apartment and returned to find him dead.
Police subsequently recovered a knife from the apartment believed to have been used in the stabbing.
It is also alleged that after the incident, Safina contacted another boyfriend, Michael Fiifi Ampofo Arku, in Kumasi, who travelled to Accra the next day and assisted in moving Osei’s body from the top-floor apartment to the pickup parked downstairs.
The prosecution said Safina handed Arku a bag containing some of Osei’s belongings and other items she wanted disposed of, which he took with him to Kumasi.
Arku was later arrested but has since provided an alibi that he was not present at the time of the killing.
