Accra – New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Abuakwa North in the Eastern Region, Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, has been stabbed to death by unknown assailants. The incident according to the Greater Accra Regional Police Commander, COP George Dampare, occurred at dawn on Tuesday, February 9 at his residence at Shiashi in Accra. The police say they cannot immediately confirm whether the killing was carried out by robbers. Citi News’ Fred Djabanor, who visited the house on Tuesday morning, reports that some minority MPs, family members, friends, the police and CID officers have been to the house.
He says in the meantime, the house has been put under lock with family members who were with him evacuated to enable the police pick up the necessary leads that could lead to the arrest of the perpetrators. According to Fred, a man who could not hold back his tears claiming to be the late MP’s personal security guard, said he arrived at the premises for his morning duty only to be told of the sad incident. “The Greater Accra Police Commander is also here. A woman has been put in a vehicle and taken away but I cannot tell if she’s the MP’s wife.” Fred says the police are yet to give out more information on the incident.
The late Joseph Boakye Danquah, is a chartered Accountant by profession. He is the grandson of late J.B Danquah, a Ghanaian statesman, pan-Africanist, scholar and historian, who played a significant role in pre- and post-colonial Ghana. J.B Danquah escaped similar attack in 2010 The late MP escaped a similar attack in 2010, although Citi News has no facts to suggest that the incident of 2010, is connected to the current one. In that attack, the MP sustained a deep cut on his arm. The assailants attacked him at a house at East Legon, believed to be his then girlfriend’s house.
In February 2013, three persons who were prosecuted for allegedly causing harm to the late MP in that attack, were convicted with fines. In that case, the married MP’s girlfriend, was the one accused of plotting the attack on him over his refusal to give her money. The three accused, Neteley Nettey Yirenkyiwaa, the beleaguered girlfriend of the MP, together with Charles Antwi and Nana Yaw Ampaw, were fined 100 penalty units, which is equivalent to GH¢1,200, or in default spend three years in prison. Antwi, who was slapped with another charge, was additionally sentenced to a fine of 100 penalty units or in default spend three years in prison.
But the trial judge, Justice Mustapha Habib Logo said the sentence should run concurrently. Antwi was therefore to pay only GH¢1,200.
The Attorney-General’s Department initially charged the three with conspiracy, robbery and causing unlawful harm but the robbery charge was opposed by Kwabena Addo Attuah, Neteley’s counsel and C.K. Mintah, who represented Antwi and Ampaw.
The lawyers successfully convinced the court that per the testimony of the prosecution witnesses, the prosecution failed to establish the ingredients needed to charge the accused persons with robbery. The court upheld the defense counsel’s arguments, dropped the robbery charge and retained the conspiracy and causing unlawful harm charges. The accused spent 15 months in detention until they were granted bail after the robbery charge was dropped, since robbery is one of the offences in which bail is normally denied.
At the time, the incident happened at East Legon in Accra in August 2010, the MP, who was also a deputy Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs under the erstwhile Kufuor administration, had lost the Abuakwa North seat in the Eastern Region; but he won it in the December 2012 elections after defeating out-going Eastern Regional Minister, Victor Smith.
The facts of the case as given by the police were that, Yirenkyiwaa, together with Antwi and Ampaw, conspired to rob the MP, at the East Legon apartment of his girlfriend on August 26, 2010. According to the police, on the morning of August 26, Ms. Yirenkyiwaa called JB, her estranged boyfriend, to meet her at Protea Hotel. When they met, she asked for financial help from him and they agreed to meet later at her house. When JB got to her house, he met Yirenkyiwaa outside, who took him into the house. They then proceeded to her bedroom where she undressed him.
The prosecution said after this, Antwi and Ampaw came out of the bathroom where they were hiding and started taking photographs, after which they attacked JB with a knife and took his pair of trousers which contained GH¢1,000. The three had pleaded not guilty.
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