Rawlings Declines To Name Suspects In Serial Murders

Former President Jerry John Rawlings yesterday declined to name the 16 senior ministers of the present Government whom he alleged masterminded the serial killing of 34 women in the country between 1994 to 2001. This was contained in a Police statement signed by Mr P.K. Acheampong, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Operations) for the IGP.

The statement said Flight Lieutenant Rawlings told a team of investigators from the Police Headquarters at his Office in Accra that he would only provide the names and evidence of confessions made by the Ministers on condition that he and those he mentioned would be taken through a "chemical interrogation".

Flt. Lt. Rawlings also stated that he would not provide the information because he lacked confidence in the Police. Besides, he said, any such information would arm those in Government to prepare their defences. "The Police is profoundly disappointed with the utterances and conduct of the former President on this matter, adding: "The Police had conducted painstaking investigations, which went as far back as 1994 to build a complete and thorough picture of the activities of Charles Quansah." "Quansah took the Police round various locations and sites in Accra and Kumasi, and what he told and showed the Police tallied on all fours with previous information, which the Police had gathered from numerous witnesses."

The statement said the Police also had evidence from some victims, who survived attempts by Quansah to strangle them. "These surviving victims also readily identified him." The statement said when Charles Quansah was eventually arrested, he confessed to murdering eight of the women. The statement said the former President "makes a fetish of what he calls 'chemical interrogation' and lie-detector tests. " The Police appreciates his ignorance on these matters, since he is not a trained professional on the applications involved in these methods. "What the Police wish the general public to know is that there is, and there have always been in the last two centuries, people who have been fascinated by the employment of 'Psycho-analysis' and half proven untested psychological and physiological methods in criminal investigations. "While these fanciful theories and methods make good and exciting reading in novels, cartoons and 'dream-works', they have very little significance in real, dogged, painstaking criminal investigations. "These methods have little or no significance in the Prosecutors' art of proving a case beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law."

The statement said Police forces the world over would, therefore, strive to gather solid evidence by time-proven methods, and such evidence is presented in coherent form by prosecutors. "It has also come to Police notice that one of the legal Advisors of the former President has alleged that bodies were imported from outside Ghana to be paraded as corpses representing serial murder victims in Ghana.

"This statement is insulting and offensive to the memories of the families of the victims of the 'serial murders'". The statement said, "85 per cent of the dead were identified by real, live Ghanaian next-of-kin. It said all these relatives gave statements in support of their personal identification. Friends, colleagues at workplaces also identified these victims. "Only a few bodies that had decomposed beyond recognition have so far not been positively identified. "These may be eventually identified by current scientific methods including DNA analysis."

The statement said the Police earnestly and passionately appeal to members of the public, especially those who should know better, to desist from unsubstantiated, unguarded, unwarranted and or frivolous comments on matters as sad and serious as deaths of innocent women.

Former President Rawlings at a lecture to mark the 24th anniversary of the June 4 Uprising said among other things that 16 Ministers of the New Patriotic Party Government masterminded the killing of women during the latter part of his administration. The Police subsequently requested an interview with him.