Editorial News of Monday, 25 January 1999

Source: --

The Mirror

About two months after the murder of two policemen at Ablekuma near Accra, the story is still in the news. The Mirror on the murdered policemen has these subheadings: Ninja's mother flies down from the US. Ninja. Taller to be buried February 6 and landlord abandons uncompleted building.

The paper says sixty one days after the murder of the two police officers, constables Richard Owusu-Sekyere alias Kwaku Ninja and Jerry wornoo, also known as Taller, their families have not come to terms with their deaths.

Jerry's family who had confirmation of their sons' death seven days after he disappeared says he is irreplaceable and Richard's mother who lives in the United States of America only got to know of her son's death through the internet, the paper said.

At Korle-Gonno, where the Mirror spoke to relatives of Jerry, the family maintained that with his death, things would be rough for them. "He was my only surviving child after two of his sisters died a few years ago. Jerry was the breadwinner of the family. he took care of me, his grandmother, wife and other extended family relations" the paper quoted Jerry's mother, Madam Esther Fofo Quaye as saying.

At Dansoman, Richards' mother said this to the Mirror, "initially, I did not believe my son was dead. I had information that he was missing or being held hostage but I did not fathom he had been murdered".

Mrs Lucy Mclean who flew down from the US told the Mirror that a friend alerted her that news of her son's death was on the internet but she just brushed it off because she did not believe it. She contacted a friend who has access to the Internet to give her a print out and when it was done, she was still skeptical.

She therefore decided to come down to Ghana. She said Richard's death is a big blow to both the maternal and paternal families and wondered how they can ever overcome it.