DNA Evidence Would Likely Have Done a Better Job

It is still, for me, cold comfort to learn that at least one of the domestic workers of Professor Emmanuel Yaw Benneh, the University of Ghana’s Law Faculty member, whose horrifically violated body was found in his own private residence in the Adjiriganor neighborhood of Accra, has reportedly confessed to having actively participated in the brutal murder of his former employer (See “Cleaner Confesses Involvement in Prof. Benneh’s Murder – State Prosecutors Tell Court” Ghanaweb.com 9/30/20).

You see, the marvelous technology of DNA is well advanced and routinely used all over the world presently, even in the most backward of Third-World countries. But, unfortunately, in Ghana, it well appears as if our law-enforcement agents have yet to be afforded the sort of professional training that would make DNA evidence admissible in any legitimately constituted court of the land. That is the kind of reality that we have had to contend with in a country which for some 20 years was ruled by a gang of ruthless junta leaders with some cynical civilian associates who only seemed to care more about robbing the Ghanaian taxpayer by any means necessary, including the abduction and murder of any citizen perceived to represent an impediment or clear and present danger to the powers that were at the time.

I am not the least bit convinced that the alleged confession of Mr. James Nana Womba, a cleaner at the Benneh residence, would get any farther down the road. We witnessed the same charade in the brutal bedroom-stabbing assassination of Mr. JB Danquah-Adu, at the time of his horrific slaying, the New Patriotic Party’s Member of Parliament for Akyem-Abuakwa-North. In the Danquah-Adu case, the narrative of the self-confessed prime suspect began to change once hints about the direct involvement of some operatives of the Mahama Jubilee House began to reliably trickle into the public domain via police investigative sources and media reporters. The same pattern could very well shortly emerge here.

Today, the Danquah-Adu slaying case is decidedly as good as useless. The bitter irony here, though, is that the present Chief Occupant of Jubilee House, to wit, President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is the cousin of the late Mr. Danquah-Adu. But, of course, that is not the only problem here. The real problem is clearly one of credibility in the fact that the then-Candidate Akufo-Addo had solemnly promised at the time to have the Danquah-Adu case thoroughly investigated and condign justice promptly delivered. Nearly six years later, if memory serves yours truly accurately, the Danquah-Adu case remains as good as effectively nonexistent. From the initially crystal clear and unfiltered details that made it into the media headlines, it was a forgone conclusion that absolutely no serious efforts would be made to resolve the Danquah-Adu murder case as long as the Mahama-led regime of the National Democratic Congress held sway.

And, lest we forget, there was also the Peter Kenyenso point-blank shooting murder case whose investigative enquiries got the extant Mahama-appointed Communications Minister, Dr. Edward Omane-Boamah, telling off then-Candidate Akufo-Addo. In the Kenyenso case, no criminal suspects were ever rounded up; the Kenyenso family would also make their utter displeasure publicly known but all to no avail. One version of the story had some family members and relatives of the extant Nkwanta-South District Chief Executive (DCE) questioning why the then-President Mahama, who was in the country, had conspicuously either failed or flatly refused to attend Mr. Kenyenso’s funeral and commiserate with the distraught family of the deceased.

So far, we have yet to hear Candidate Mahama make any public statement about the brutal slaying of Prof. Benneh. Not that it would really matter anyhow, in view of what we all know about Little Dramani’s inordinate penchant for activities inimical to the integrity and respectability of the country’s judicial system. The prompt removal and transfer of the Chief Investigator of the Danquah-Adu case, Dr. George Akuffo-Dampare, to a post that clearly reeked of administrative demotion, convinces yours truly of the fact that when it comes to the protection of Ghanaian citizenry and the strict maintenance of our national security apparatus, Candidate Mahama can definitely not be trusted.

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By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

English Department, SUNY-Nassau

Garden City, New York

September 30, 2020

E-mail: [email protected]