... Serial killer confesses

The self-confessed murderer of eight of the victims of the serial killings that shook and created panic in Accra since 1997, has confessed he raped his victims before killing them. The murders occurred mainly at Dansoman, Adenta and Mateheko, all suburbs of Accra and in Kumasi.

Charles Quansah, alias Paapa Kwabena Ebo, a 36-year-old driver-mechanic who hails from Komenda in the Central Region, is said to have a bad track record.

Further investigations by The Mirror into his background show that Quansah, who is single and has no child, comes from a broken home and as a result he hardly stayed long at any particular place at any given time.

It is also said that when he moved to his latest abode at Adenta, his co-tenants claimed they seldom saw him because he left home early in the morning and returned late at night when everybody had gone to bed.

A police source told The Mirror that Quansah, until his arrest, was a commercial driver and shuttled from village to village with market women carting foodstuffs to the city.

The source said Quansah had no definite routes on which he plied but moved to different locations on varied market • Continued from Page 1

days in the rural areas to work. He also did not belong to any drivers’ union.

According to the source, Quansah, a school drop out, was employed as a commercial driver by a transport owner after he abandoned his mechanic job.

Quansah, a hardened rapist, was alleged to have served nine months in jail in 1986 at the James Fort Prison after raping a young lady in the Dansoman neighbourhood.

He went back to the Nsawam Prison a little over a month after his release from the James Fort Prison for raping a hefty and elderly woman. He served three years in jail.

The source disclosed that the security agencies have solicited the help of a psychiatrist to establish the mental alertness of the suspect. The police are yet to establish the motive of his killings.

The source said after serving his second sentence, Quansah went to Kumasi Agiya to settle. However, he moved down to live at Dansoman, in 1997 but later proceeded to Adenta in September 2000, where he resided before his arrest in February this year.

Quansah, who seems to be operating single-handedly, told the police he does his operations at random.

In an interview with the Public Relations Officer of the Police at the headquarters, Superintendent Richard Baduweh said upon a tip-off, Quansah had been put on police surveillance for some time now until his arrest.

Supt Baduweh said as part of the police efforts to track down the perpetrators of serial killings, the police administration set up a special investigations team which includes experts in Crime Scene Management and Interrogation, and had special assistance from the American Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) who are known as the Scientific Investigation Support (SIS).

“The FBI has collected physical evidence to their laboratory for further scientific analysis, a report on these will confirm other pieces of evidence at hand in order to commence prosecution”, Supt Baduweh said.

He said the suspect has not confessed killing for ritual purposes neither has he justified his actions. As a result, the police are conducting intensive investigations and interrogation to establish the facts of the story.

Reacting to the arrest of the suspect, Ms Gloria Ofori-Buadu, Executive Director of the Federation of International Women Lawyers (FIDA), commended the Ghana Police and the US FBI and the government for helping to solve the murder cases.

She said “they have done a yeoman’s job; however, the suspect was in custody in February but on March 23, this year, the body of Janet Aku Davordzi, a petty trader, was found at a spot on the Accra-Dadowa road.”

According to Ms Ofori-Buadu, this shows that there are still some murderers out there. “We believe that with hardwork and dedication to service on the part of the police, supported by the goodwill of government and civil society including FIDA, the murders of the remaining 25 women will also be resolved.”