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03.08.2009 General News

Police drop murder charges against operators of Eusbett Hotel

03.08.2009 LISTEN
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The Attorney-General's Department has advised the police to drop murder charges against the operators of Eusbett Hotel Limited in Sunyani, Mr. Samuel Owusu Bennett and Ms. Eunice Bennett and two others, in relation to the death of a former security guard of the Hotel, Nicholas Nuoliebe, for lack of sufficient evidence.

The Proprietor of Eusbett Hotel, Mr. Samuel Owusu Bennett and his Executive Director, Ms Eunice Bennett, Adama Issah and Abdulai Nubenur, both security guards of the hotel, were held as suspects in an alleged murder case of a 50-year-old Nuoliebe whose corpse was found floating in the swimming pool at the hotel on Sunday morning, April19 2009.

Nuoliebe was found dead in a pool at the hotel about four months ago. The police found a drinking glass containing a whitish substance believed to be poison on a table close to the pool where Nuoliebe's corpse was found floating. However, post-mortem on the dead body revealed that the deceased was electrocuted.

The police's investigations into the issue of electrocution to ascertain whether the deceased was working on any electrical gadget at the time of his death, revealed that Nuoliebe, who was employed as a room attendant and later moved to security department, had no knowledge about electrical operation and as such was not tasked to perform duties relating to disconnection or connection of electrical gadgets at the hotel. Neither was he working with any electrical gadget at the time of his death, the investigation further revealed. After conducting relevant investigations, the police sent the docket to the A-G's office for a thorough study and advice, The Chronicle gathered.

Pieces of information gathered by The Chronicle indicate that the police, having concluded their relevant investigations, could not find sufficient evidence to sustain a murder charge against the suspects, and had consequently been advised by the A-G's Department not to only drop the murder charges but also close the docket on the case.

“The evidence available is insufficient to sustain a charge of murder against the suspects. Hence drop the charges of murder against the 1st suspect, Adama Issah, 2nd suspect Abdulai Nubenur, 3rd suspect, Samuel Owusu Bennett and 4th suspect, Eunice Bennett. Further to the above we also advice that having completed all the relevant investigations and this docket should formally be closed and treated as such”, the AG advised the police.

When reached, Mr. Bennett noted that though the news was a welcome one, he was disturbed about the damage that the incident, which was widely reported in the media, had caused his hard won reputation.

He disclosed that as part of measures to beef up security in and around the hotel premises, sixteen security cameras had been fitted, especially at very sensitive areas to monitor and record various activities being undertaken at the hotel.

The proprietor of the three-star hotel entreated his staff to tell whoever might be concerned about anything that would happen in the hotel the truth of the matter to avoid unnecessary speculations and falsehood.

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