I am not holding my breath in any hopes of Daniel Asiedu’s revealing the names of the alleged masterminds behind the unspeakably savage assassination of Mr. Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, then the New Patriotic Party’s Member of Parliament for Akyem-Abuakwa-North. I am not holding my breath because in the wake of the brutal stabbing-death of Mr. Danquah-Adu, a lot of things have occurred at the Headquarters of the Ghana Police Service (GPS) that have yet to be convincingly resolved.
First, somebody needs to explain to the rest of us, that is, all forward-looking and well-meaning Ghanaians, in particular the blood relatives of the slain politician, why then-Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. John Kudalor, unceremoniously bumped then-Deputy Commissioner of Police and the GPS’s Greater-Accra Regional Commander who had been assigned to investigate both the alleged perpetrators of the crime and the causative factors and set of circumstances leading to the stabbing death of the deceased. As those of us who have been sedulously following the case know, Dr. Dampare was abruptly removed from the case and immediately transferred from his Greater-Accra Regional Police Commander’s post to the clearly lesser or demoted position of Head of the Winneba Police Training Depot or Academy.
We must also bear in mind that IGP Kudalor was appointed by then-President John Dramani Mahama. As well, both Commissioner Dampare and the slain politician are of Akyem-Abuakwa sub-state affiliation and Akan-descended. But even more significantly must be poignantly underscored the professionally well-known fact that Dr. Dampare is listed among the most brilliant and finest criminal investigators in the country. If, indeed, there was any forensically sustainable evidence linking the brutal assassination of Mr. Danquah-Adu to the rub-out or Mafia-type contractors of the then main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), as is now being alleged by the prime suspect, I bet my proverbial bottom-dollar that a desperate to be reelected President John Dramani Mahama would definitely have made an epic political capital out of this unforgivably gruesome case, just as then-Candidate Kwame Nkrumah eloquently and pontifically made against the “Kyebi Mafia,” in the equally savage murder of Nana Akyea-Mensah (Barima Ohemeng) of Akyem-Apedwa.
Then also, we need to revisit all the pieces of evidence and confessional reports from the criminal suspects put into the media mainstream by the first police investigators to handle the case. For instance, it was widely alleged that at least one key operative of the Mahama Flagstaff House, recently renamed Jubilee House, had threatened to teach Mr. Danquah-Adu an unforgettable lesson. The phone number of that anonymous operative, we ere told, had been found on one of the three, or so, cellphones reportedly used by the deceased that had been retrieved by police investigators. There was a plethora of other details put into the public domain by a police-fed media that piqued the discursive interest of crackerjack lawyer-criminologists like Prof. Kenneth Attafua. We need to revisit all these bits and pieces of expert opinions in the wake of the slaying of the Akyem-Abuakwa-North’s NPP-MP.
It is also quite clear that Mr. Asiedu, the lead-butcher of Mr. Danquah-Adu, we were told then that there were at least two other accomplices, has had enough time to be coached and rehearsed by some operatives of the now-opposition National Democratic Congress to say that he had originally been prompted by his paymasters to charge the political opponents of the deceased with the latter’s clearly contracted liquidation. Indeed, both the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress have an unenviable bloody political record. But it is the NDC that has shown itself to be more professionally savvy at the job, especially when it comes to the subject of criminal coverups.
Who has, for instance, forgotten about the unsolved brutal assassination of Mr. Peter Kenyenso, the Nkwanta-South District Chief Executive, who had been personally handpicked and appointed to the post by then-President Mahama? We also vividly recall the rude riposte that then-Communication Minister Dr. Edward Omane-Boamah gave then-Candidate Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, when the latter, on the hustings, dared to ask about the unsolved assassination of Mr. Kenyenso. It was in direct response to President Mahama’s shamelessly hypocritical accusation of his political opponents of running a violent political organization. At least in the case of the equally brutally assassinated Mr. Adams Mahama, the then Upper-East’s NPP Regional Chairman, the criminal suspects were promptly apprehended. No thanks, by the way, to the Mahama regime, but the vigilance of the slain man’s relatives, colleagues and some of the hardworking members of the Ghana Police Service.
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