Crime & Punishment of Thursday, 19 September 2019

Source: thechronicle.com.gh

Security camera captures image of Ashaiman murderer

The suspects Francis Kwaku Azumah (L) and Kobby (R) The suspects Francis Kwaku Azumah (L) and Kobby (R)

A secret security camera has captured the image of the person who killed two watchmen at Apsonic Motors and Kasapreko, opposite the Ashaiman Senior High School at Ashaiman near Tema, on Saturday night, The Chronicle can report.

The image captured by the camera is also believed to be that of the same person who murdered one Joshua, a coconut seller by the Tema-Akosombo road.

A reliable security source who spoke to The Chronicle said the murderer applied the same modus operandi using concrete blocks to hit the back of the heads of the victims. After the killing, the murderer surgically extracted their eyes and tongues.

The Chronicle’s independent investigation reveals that on that fateful night, the dual carriageway in the area where the crime was committed was temporarily blocked by unknown persons, making it impossible for vehicles to ply.

Following the horrifying incident, the police, in the early hours of Monday September, 16 2019, assisted by armed personnel drawn from the Eastern Naval Command and First Battalion of Infantry descended on suspected criminal hideouts in the Tema Metropolis and Ashaiman Municipality.

The exercise was carried at Tema New Town, Community 5000 in the defunct Meridian Hotel enclave, and Tulaku near where Joshua, the coconut seller was killed.

Meanwhile, the police at Afienya have arrested a notorious criminal, Francis Nutufe Kwaku Azumah, 34, a mason, alleged to have led some daring armed robbery escapades in the jurisdiction.

The Afienya District Police Commander, Superintendent Asiamah Agyei, who confirmed the arrest to The Chronicle, stated that an accomplice in these robberies, only known as Kobby, is at large and has, therefore, been declared wanted.

According to Superintendent Agyei, the suspect and his gang had been terrorising residents of Newland, Mataheko and Jerusalem, among other areas with impunity. He mentioned that some months ago, the criminal group attacked the home of a businesswoman in Newland, and at gunpoint robbed her of cash and other valuables.

In the early hours of last Thursday morning, the police boss intimated that Azumah allegedly led an onslaught in the area and robbed, at least, five homes.

In another development, Inusa Musah reports from Prampram that the Prampram District Police had picked Ali Kofi Sewanu as a suspect in the gruesome murder and burning of a family of three at Zutsukope, a farming community at Tsopoli, a suburb of the Ningo-Prampram District in the Greater Accra Region.

Joshua Koranteng Oman, 35, his wife and three-year-old child were ambushed, killed and set ablaze by unknown assailants at about 8pm last Thursday night when they were on their way home after fetching water from a stream.

The deceased were charred beyond recognition, but their Nissan Hardbody pickup, with registration number GW 8970 V, aided neighbours to locate their immediate relations to break the gory news to them.

On Monday, September 16, The Chronicle gathered that the Ningo-Prampram District Police Command had arrested an uncle of Joshua Oman, Ali Kofi Sewanu, as a suspect in the dastardly act.

Though the police had commenced investigations into the criminal act, the mother of the deceased, Amuosie Apenti, told The Chronicle at the police station that sometime in August this year, her son, the deceased, requested that the extended family give him a parcel of land to embark upon shifting cultivation.

The farmland he had been cultivating for over a decade had lost fertility, so the deceased hardly harvested good crop yields, Madam Amousie explained.

“At the family meeting, my brother [suspect] told my son that if he made a move to take another farmland from the family, he would wipe him off from the earth. In fact, the statement was deep, so some of the family elders reported the matter to the Ningo Traditional Council for arbitration.

“Arbitration did not travel far, only to hear the devastating death of my son, his wife and child,” she told the press in the Dangbe language.

Madam Amousie expressed confidence in the police at getting to the bottom of the matter and allow the law to deal with the actors.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mohammed Issah Cantona, Ningo-Prampram District Police Commander, told media personnel that the police would rely on vital information to arrest all the actors in the murder.

He said statements had been taken from three family members, “and we are going to invite more of them to help us in our investigations.” Meanwhile, the charred remains of the three have been deposited at the Police Hospital.