Family Petitions IGP Over Dansoman Murder Case

THE family of the late Emmanuel Kwasi Ayeh who was murdered at his residence at Dansoman Estate, Accra, has petitioned the Inspector General of Police to take over investigations of the case from the Dansoman Police.

They are further asking that the IGP should compel the Dansoman Police to refund money extorted from them by Nana Osei Kwadwo, alias Nana Sei, who the family say they first met in the company of some Dansoman policemen.

He claimed he was handling the case but the Dansoman Police later said was neither a police officer nor working with the Dansoman Police Station.

The petition, signed on behalf of the family by Joyce Umanta, daughter of the deceased, and copied to the Minister of the Interior, said between March 6 and March 23, a total of GH¢466 was extorted from the family by Nana Sei, who said it was to help police facilitate their investigations.

It also asked the IGP to reprimand the Dansoman Police for the unprofessional manner in which they have handled the case so far.

The questions raised in the petition include why the Dansoman Police officers now say that the person who has been acting as the spokesman for the four-man police investigation team and who also took part in interrogating the widow and a brother of Mrs Umanta is not a police officer. Also, they wondered why he was among the officers who came to arrest the widow, Mrs Umanta’s mother, who was allegedly told by CID Botchway that the case had been handed over to Nana Sei.

The family contended that all these could not have happened without the knowledge of the Dansoman Police Commander.

'I saw Nana Osei Kwadwo for the first time in that police car as they took my mother away and asked me to follow them to the police station,' Mrs Umanta said in the petition.

They also question how the Dansoman Police protected the evidence collected from the crime scene as they did not put on gloves, thereby contaminating the fingerprints of those who committed the crime.

'In view of these, can we still rely on the Dansoman Police in this murder case and can they be said to be working in our interest?' they questioned.

Mrs Umanta said during the investigations, an Opel Astra Saloon car was given to Nana Sei and his team to facilitate their work.

Giving the reasons that led to their suspicion of Nana Sei, they said about two weeks ago, someone named Jerry phoned to say he was calling from Somanya and they should inform Nana Sei that the main suspect, K.B., who was being trailed had been arrested. Nana Sei was accordingly informed and he said he was proceeding right away to bring him down.

Later that day, they said Nana Sei called to say that he had seen K.B., in police custody, but they could not bring him down to Accra because they wanted to use him to effect the arrest of the other suspects.

Afterwards, they said, Kwadwo started pressurising the family for more money to go to Kumasi, Koforidua and Somanya in connection with the investigations, but due to the inconsistencies in his statements and suspicious behaviour, the family decided to see the Dansoman Police Commander instead, as the reports given by Kwadwo contradicted those published in the Ghanaian Times.

They said they were therefore shocked to hear from the Dansoman Police Commander, Superintendent Alex Yartey Tawiah, that Nana Sei was neither a police officer nor did he work at the Dansoman Police Station.

In the Tuesday, April 8 issue of the Ghanaian Times, it was reported that the Dansoman police have mounted an intensive hunt for a man parading as a Police Intelligence Officer from the CID Headquarters, assigned to investigate the murder of Mr Ayeh.

Superintendent Tawiah, the Commander, told the Times that Nana Osei Kwadwo had been using the names of senior police officers to lure his victims, adding that, he goes to police stations and on hearing of people’s cases, he approached them and offers to help them.