Crime & Punishment of Saturday, 2 March 2024

Source: GNA

Murder of J. B. Danquah: My opinion of Asiedu as a 'terrible guy' is not personal – Investigator

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Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Augustus Nkrumah says his description of Daniel Asiedu as a “terrible guy” is not an opinion.

At the High Court, ASP Nkrumah said per the statements given by Daniel Asiedu and Vincent Bossu, both accused persons in the J. B Danquah Adu murder case, the accused persons stated that they were “thieves and they were going on a stealing expedition.”.

According to the investigator, the accused persons graduated from thieves to armed robbers because of the offensive implements they possessed.

“For an armed robber to have those offensive weapons indicated that he was capable of resisting anything in the commission of the crime, so when the first accused person (Asiedu) had the chance of entering the deceased’s room, he ensured that whatever prevented him from robbing was eliminated.”

ASP Nkrumah said this while answering questions under cross-examination administered by Yaw Dankwa, defence counsel for the two accused persons.

He maintained that it was Asiedu who murdered the MP, adding that investigations and the admission of the accused person (Asiedu) in the commission of the crime and retrieval of offensive weapons and belongings pointed out that it was Asiedu, who killed the MP.

Daniel Asiedu is being held for his alleged involvement in the murder of former Abuakwa North Member of Parliament, J. B. Danquah Adu, at his residence in the year 2016 at Shaishie, Accra.

His accomplice, Vincent Bossu, is being held for allegedly conspiring with Asiedu to rob.

They have pleaded not guilty before a seven-member jury.

The court presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo has remanded the two accused persons into prison custody.

ASP Nkrumah, the eighth prosecution witness, said when the deceased put up resistance, “what first accused person (Asiedu) did was to stab him (the late MP) in the neck and chest about six times for the deceased to give up the ghost.”

The investigator told the court that it was incorrect for defence counsel to suggest to him that he formed an opinion that Asiedu murdered the MP on November 23, 2016, without conducting investigations.

The eighth prosecution witness said investigations at the time established that it was Asiedu who murdered the former MP.

The investigator admitted that he personally wrote his statement.

According to the investigator, his own statement was not tendered in evidence because he had not been asked to do so.

ASP Nkrumah denied that he was selective in his investigations.

He told the court that eleven statements, including caution statements, were taken from the accused persons.

The matter has been adjourned to March 11, 2024