Chris Asher Jnr to arrested, prosecuted in Ghana

Information circulating within the corridors of power in Accra suggests that Mr. Chris Asher Jnr, the lawyer who is alleged to have killed one Ofori Atta at point blank range in Ghana in the late 1970s, is to be lured into the country on the occasion of his elder brother’s expiration, by the Ghanaian authorities and subsequently arraigned before court. Aware of the increasing likelihood that Asher was likely to return to Ghana on the occasion of his brother’s death, the longsuffering family of Ofori Atta are alleged to have visited the Ghana Police Head Quarters and the Bureau of National Investigations to alert them of his imminent arrival in the country and have also reminded these two bodies of the standing writ against Asher issued by an Accra High Court in 2004.

Sources close to the family have also confirmed that a report has been made to the Central Regional Police Command at Cape Coast, at the Swedru District Police Station and also at the Nsaba Police Station. The family are also said to have been assured by the ruling government that no such immunity of the type accorded Chris Asher Jnr under the so-called “safe passage” will be available for him this time round. Having overstayed his visit in Ghana and having launched a book in blatant contradiction of the terms of his immunity in 2003 after he testified at the now defunct National Reconciliation Commission, Chris Asher has according to most government sources become a complete nuisance to the NPP government.

The Chris Asher murder saga began somewhere in Agona Nsaba in the Central Region of Ghana in the early 80’s. Following a bitter land dispute between the lawyer and one Ofori Atta about a few acreages in that part of the country, it is alleged that, Chris Asher laid an ambush for Ofori and shot him about 24 times in his head at point blank range. He was subsequently arrested and arraigned before court and later charged with first degree murder and incarcerated at the Nsawam high security prison.

In the meanwhile his more affable elder brother, the now deceased Dr. Chris Asher Snr, editor and publisher of the Palaver was in exile after being marked for death by the Rawlings junta. As the whole Asher family had been vigorously persecuted by the PNDC junta during and after the sophomore PNDC putsch, some sections of the Ghanaian public and the man himself have always claimed that the alleged murder was another fabrication to wipe out the whole family.

A source within the top echelons of the NPP party who earlier granted Chris Asher Jnr immunity to testify at the NRC revealed that Chris Asher was “now an unwelcome distraction to the ruling party” and assured this writer that “justice would be allowed to take its course in the event of him arriving in the country.

Apparently the family of Ofori Atta has also been assured of justice and their day in court in the event of Chris Asher arriving in the country.

Emmanuel Penny Freelance Journalist Accra,Ghana

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