Akwamufie Killer Charged

Twenty-six-year-old Yaw Anokye Frimpong, a driver who confessed single-handedly killing the two African-American women at Akwamufie in the Eastern Region of Ghana in May this year, has officially been charged for murder by the police.

Anokye Frimpong was charged with the offence after the Attorney General's (AG's) Department had issued a statement indicting him as murderer.

The accused person confessed in court to killing Mamelina Diop, 75 and Nzinga Jaana, 69, at Akwamu while standing trial with five others in June this year.

An Accra Human Rights Court however, granted bail to the five others, including   Nana Appia-Nti III, a mechanic; Nana Obiri Yeboah, a farmer; Brenda Kareema Mohammed, a pensioner; Yazid Alazim Mohammed, a businessman and Mensah Kamaugogo Muata, a surgeon assistant.

Frimpong was refused bail after he confessed carrying out the heinous crime and later buried the two women single-handedly.

COP Prosper Kwame Agblor, Director General     in-charge of the police Criminal Investigations Department (CID), told the media that upon completion of investigations into the matter, a duplicate docket was forwarded to the Attorney General's Department for advice in August 12, 2015.

On November 18, 2015, the AG's advice was received indicting Yaw Anokye Frimpong.

'He is to be charged with murder, contrary to Section 46 of the Criminal Offences Act 1960 (Act 29).

The accused, according to COP Agblor, has been charged accordingly and his charge statement forwarded to the Attorney General's Department for the preparation of the Bill of Indictment and Summary of Evidence for him to stand trial at the high court.

Giving the genesis of the story, COP Agblor said in May 6, 2015, the Homicide Unit of the CID was tasked to conduct investigations into the murder of the two African-Americans at Akwamufie, near Akosombo.

The deceased persons, Mamalina Diop and Nzinga Jaana, were among a group of African-Americans who acquired a vast tract of land at Akwamufie and settled there.

The women later named the community Fihankra.
On May 4, 2015, at about 10:00 pm, Mamalina Diop and Nzinga Jaana were attacked in their homes and clubbed to death by an unidentified assailant.

Their bodies were buried in a shallow grave dug by the assailant within the community.

In the early hours of May 5, 2015, when the two women were not seen and also not heard of, some of their neighbours engaged the services of a carpenter who broke into their apartments.

A blood-stained club was found lying on the floor of Jaana's room as well as a rubber bag also covered with blood stains and stashed in a dustbin.

A report about the disappearance of the two women was made to the police.

A search was conducted which led to the discovery of the bodies of the two women buried in a shallow grave near a farm within the community.

Investigations led to the arrest of six suspects, including Yaw Anokye Frimpong.

Upon interrogation, he confessed to murdering the two women and burying them single-handedly in the grave he had dug near his farm.

Anokye Frimpong in June this year, told an Accra magistrate court that he single-handedly committed the act and that the others arrested should be freed because they were innocent.

He however, did not give the reason why he committed the crime.

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By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey