We Must Go Beyond the “Smoking-Gun” Stage in the Hussein-Suale Case

Ahmed Hussein-Suale

Let us take this prime opportunity to congratulate famed investigative journalist and professionally trained lawyer Mr. Anas Aremeyaw Anas on his receiving of an investigative-journalism award from the International Sports Press Association (AIPS), in Lausanne, Switzerland, in the same country in which the globally distinguished and celebrated first Black-African Secretary-General of the United Nations, and former Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Mr. Kofi Annan, died late last year. Unfortunately, this award for the seismic exposé docudrama, titled “Number 12,” comes just a couple of days in the wake of the brutal Mafia-style slaying of Mr. Ahmed Hussein-Suale, the sleuthing partner and colleague of Mr. Anas, proprietor of the Tiger-Eye PI team of private investigators.

So, it was quite fitting that Mr. Anas would dedicate his award in honor of his brutally slain colleague. This is what Mr. Anas, reportedly, had to say to the aforesaid tragic event while receiving his professional-recognition award from Mr. Gianni Merlo, President of the International Sports Press Association: “I receive this award in honor of my colleague, Ahmed Hussein. I know that he would have been with me to receive this award but for the unfortunate incident. If there’s any message that Ahmed would have loved me to give you all, it would have been a simple one: that we will never surrender because journalism is not a crime” (See “Anas Picks International Award for Number 12, Dedicates Prize to Late Ahmed” 1/21/19).

Very memorable and poignant words, indeed. But what inspired me to write and publish this column was news report that the two hitherto unidentified killers of Tiger-Eye PI’s Mr. Ahmed Hussein-Suale have been identified by personnel from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service (GPS). However, the messenger who brought this message to the general Ghanaian public, Mr. Andrew Kofi Agyapa Mercer, who is also the ruling New Patriotic Party’s Member of Parliament for the Sekondi Constituency, in the Western Region, did not disclose the fact of whether these criminal suspects had been arrested or were in the grips of our law-enforcement agents (See “Ahmed Hussien[sic]-Suale’s Killers Identified – MP Reveals” Adomonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 1/21/19).

Since the occurrence of this apocalyptic tragedy, I have been of the view that it was only a matter of time before the criminal suspects were either identified or rounded up and brought to justice. I got this inkling when I read in one of the tons of news reports that the killers of Mr. Hussein-Suale had apparently been casing the Madina family compound of the deceased several hours before Mr. Hussein-Suale’s life was savagely snuffed out of the 31-year-old man. What also fascinated me was the very detailed description that an eyewitness was reported to have given law-enforcement authorities vis-à-vis both the appearance and the manner in which three deadly bullets were pumped, point-blank range, into the body of Mr. Hussein-Suale, with two of the bullets striking the chest-area target of the gunmen and a third one at his neck, killing him almost instantly.

Then, we were also told that one of the two gunmen was remarkably taller than his companion, who appeared to have been the lookout man, and that it was the taller one who first aimed the weapon, after presumably snatching the caliber-unspecified gun from his much shorter accomplice, at the chest of the victim and fired two shots, while the shorter suspect, who may very well have fired the third shot, had been hiding behind a light pole. He may also have been the one who rode the getaway motorbike. Now that the metaphorical “smoking-gun” appears to have been uncovered by the police, it remains to be seen whether the circumstantial suspect, that is, Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, the New Patriotic Party’s Member of Parliament for Assin-Central, had anything to do with the brutal slaying of Mr. Hussein-Suale, who had reportedly been driving out of his grandfather’s Madina compound, after having allegedly visited his sick child, when he was met with the fatal gunfire.

Earlier on, there had been reports claiming that the deceased undercover journalist had been executed on the Accra-Madina Highway. Still, what is most significant note here is the fact of whether the criminal suspects get to be promptly brought to justice. In the well-known cases of the equally renowned MP, Mr. JB Danquah-Adu, and the lesser known NPP Regional Party Chairman, Mr. Adams Mahama, the criminal suspects were equally promptly arrested, but condign justice has yet to be meted these suspects by any legitimately constituted court in Ghana two-plus years on. Hopefully, the heavy international outcry for justice for Mr. Hussein-Suale would speedily facilitate the search for prompt and effective remedy for the apparently perennial canker of lethargy that seems to have morbidly afflicted both the Ghanaian judicial system, as well as our equally scandalously lethargic law-enforcement culture.

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By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
January 21, 2019
E-mail: [email protected]