Scotland Yard investigates murder of Ghanaian in UK

Accra, May 12, GNA - The New Scotland Yard, the criminal investigative branch of the UK Police on Thursday appealed to Ghanaians with relevant information on the mysterious murder of a Ghanaian national in UK to assist it bring the perpetrators to book.

The murdered Ghanaian, Jeff Mensah, 27, from Abesewa Gyaman in the Western Region went to London in February 2002.

He stayed at 83 North Street, Plaistow, East London, the home of Richard Attakora and Bernice Pokuua Gyimah both Ghanaians.

Detective Inspector Terry Geraghty of Specialist Crime Directorate of the New Scotland Yard Metropolitan Police, who made the appeal at a press conference in Accra, said Mensah worked for some time as a kitchen assistant at a Ghanaian restaurant called the "Garden City Restaurant" in Leytonstone, London before he left and worked for Richard Gyimah on a goods delivery round.

He said during the evening of Tuesday December 8, 2004, Mensah was with his friends at the said restaurant where he had a meal, left alone at about 2230 hours and walked a short distance to an address where he met a friend, Ben Gyimah, who took Mensah home in his car, arriving at about 2255 hours.

Detective Inspector Geraghty said two men were waiting inside Mensah's home when he arrived.

He said there was a short struggle and Mensah was kidnapped by the two men, who set the house on fire. The Police and Fire Service were alerted at about 0120 hours on Wednesday December 8, 2004.

He said at about 1015 hours later that morning, the body of a man identified as Mensah was found in a suitcase within a block of garages in Dartford Avenue; Edmonton, North London.

The suitcase and Mensah's body had been burnt. A post-mortem failed to identify the cause of Mensah's death but concluded he had died before being set on fire.

The Scotland Yard Detective said extensive enquiries by the Metropolitan Police in London have so far failed to identify the motive or persons responsible for Mensah's death.

He said the Police believed that the Ghanaian Community in London might have information that could assist them but they had rather unusually failed to assist the Police in their investigations. This, Detective Geraghty, said might be the fear that the Ghanaians by helping the Police would be targeted by the assailants or that they had entered the UK illegally and feared deportation by coming forward to volunteer information.

His visit to Ghana to seek for assistance to solve the case stemmed from the premise that some Ghanaians, who were in London at the time the crime was committed and who might have vital information might have come back to Ghana and would feet safer to contact the Police. He, however, stressed that the Metropolitan Police in London have made it clear that a persons' status in the UK was not important to them, that their objective was only to find those responsible for Mensah's death.

Detective Geraghty said those with information on the crime and did not feel comfortable with approaching the Police could provide information anonymously by calling the numbers 00 44 (0) 800 555 111 and 00 44 (0) 208 345 3865 in the UK.

A reward of 5,000 pounds has been offered for information leading to the arrest, charge and judicial disposal of the persons responsible for Mensah's murder.

The detective gave the description of the two men suspected to have murdered Mensah as a light-skinned black male, about 1.8 metres tall, proportionately built, described as having a Jamaican accent and the other a darker-skinned black male, about 1.7 metres tall, slim, described as a Ghanaian.

Mr Kwame Mensah, the father of the deceased, also appealed to Ghanaians with relevant information on the murder of his son to assist bring the murderers to book.