late Joseph Boakye Danquah Adu
It was Tuesday, February 9, 2016 dawn in Ghana. We woke up with the sad news of the assassination of Hon. Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa North in the Eastern Region.
Reports say the MP was stabbed to death by unknown assailants at his [ads1]residence at Shiashi in Accra. On that red Tuesday, the police or no one knew the reason behind the brutal killing of the MP as to whether is it was a robbery or contract killing.
With the evidence available, one could easily conclude that the attack was not a robbery but a planned killing.
Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu is silent Ghanaian politicians. Most people got to know of him through the news of his assassination. He is a grandson of the renowned NPP founding member JB Danquah (who the MP was named after), was born on July 2, 1965 and was married with two children. He was a Member of Parliament for Abuakwa North Constituency in the Eastern Region of Ghana on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party until he was stabbed to death at his residence in Accra on Tuesday, February 9, 2016 dawn.
In 2010, he was Deputy Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs under the then President, John A. Kuffour, and won Abuakwa North seat in the December 2012 elections after defeating the National Democratic Congress’ Victor Smith.
He was a 19-member Special Budget Committee chaired by the Majority Leader.
The Committee considers the budget of Parliament and other constitutionally independent bodies, including, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), National Media Commission (NMC), the Electoral Commission (EC), and National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE).
Mr. JB Danquah-Adu was a Chartered Accountant. He was the Executive Director of Automotive Springs (Ghana) Limited between January 2005 – January 2009.2005 – January 2009.
How Was J.B. Danquah Killed?
On that red Tuesday, there was a security guard present in the house according to reports. What is yet to uncover is: According to reports, the assailant (s) got access into JB’s bedroom on the first floor through the widow aided by a ladder, struggled with JB and stabbed him to death. This happened after the MP had returned home around midnight. At the time he got home, his family was asleep on the ground floor – meaning he had slept in his room alone before the attack.
- Where was the security guard when the assailant (s) entered the house either through the gate or skipping over the hall?
- Where was the security guard when the ladder that reports say was behind the house, brought to fix at the window side of JB’s bedroom?
- Where was him when the assailant (s) climbed and entered the room?
- Where was the security guard when the MP was being struggled?
- Where was the security guard when the assailant (s) left the house after the act?
- Was the security sleeping or he was out of duty post at the time?
Below is how Joy FM’s website recorded how MP for Abuakwa South, Atta Akyea explained the issue of the security guard at the home of JB that day:
“Atta Akyea, a close friend of the deceased politician criticized the security details at JB Danquah’s residence for being lax.
According to him, the security man saw a ladder stretched across the wall in front of the house at least an hour before the politician returned home Tuesday dawn.
The father of two entered his home and his bedroom upstairs while his family was downstairs asleep.
Atta Akyea said the security men while making nocturnal rounds saw shifty movements in the politician’s bedroom. The suspected assailant moved a curtain and closed the window.
But the security men were afraid and made no attempt to close in on the attacker, Atta Akyea continued. Although they called in the police, no further attempt was made while the security officers were yet to come to help.
“They were not wise enough to surround the building…so the guy knowing that they were standing in front of the house, tactically fled through the back.”
In his haste, the assailant jumped outside the back wall and fled. The Police were called in after 1:30am. JB Danquah’s body was found in a pool of blood.
Atta Akyea says the murder has signs of a contract killing.
The assailant “timed him well [and] came for him,” and was given instructions to “go do this singular thing and finish this man off.”
Previous Record of Assassination Attempts
According to records, J.B Danquah-Adu actually escaped similar attack in 2010. However, this article is not suggesting the attack that took his life is in any way connected to the 2010 incidence but it is very necessary we throw our minds back to history and try to analyze the present and future situations.
“In that 2010 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 accuses 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, 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 during the December 2012 elections after defeating the then 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.”
The above narration as presented by Citi FM on their website, at the end the MP was attacked with a knife. In the February 9, 2016 attack report say, the MP was stabbed with a knife I believe.
So Who Killed JB and Why?
The Ghana Police acted swift upon receiving a call around 1:30am as report say. They went to the house of the MP and found him in a pull of blood. They rush the stabbed MP to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Immediately, an investigation started. The police arrested five (5) people including the dead MP’s driver and his security guard to assist the police investigation. Four (4) of the five (5) arrested were release while the security guard is still in the police custody.
Investigation continues…on February 11, 2016, thus two days after the incident, the Accra Regional Police command has confirmed to have arrested one of the prime suspected ‘killers’ identified as a 20years old Daniel Asiedu.
Aided by informants, the alleged killer was nabbed in an operation led by the Accra Regional Police Commander DCOP George Akuffo Dampare when he (the suspect) went to Agbogbloshie in Accra to decode the phones of the late Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu.
Reports say the police have identified the suspect as a remand prisoner and a beneficiary of the Justice For All Programme.
How the suspect was arrested:
His arrest comes hours after the police service announced a GH¢10,000 cedis bounty for information that could lead to the arrest of the perpetrators of that dastardly act.
According to reports, the suspected killer of JB had sent three of the MP’s phone for decoding at Agbogbloshie in Accra.
“According to highly placed police sources at the Accra Regional Police Command, one of the three phones which were taken for decoding had the picture of the late MP “as screen saver and that of former President John Kufuor as screen lock.”
“The repairer alerted the police and they picked Asiedu up,” – this is how Peace FM gave the account on their website.
In another report, the suspected killer confirmed committing the crime.
Contradictory reports on the suspected killer confirmation: In what can be referred to as a sharp u-turn, in the video posted on Joy FM’s website have this to say…
“The suspected killer of the late Abuakwa North Member of Parliament, JB Danquah Adu says he was standing outside the politician’s home when the murder was being committed.
In a video that has emerged, a woman is heard questioning the suspect. She sought to confirm from the young man if he was standing outside while the murder took place. The suspect said he did not enter the house.
He confirmed to the woman that he has mentioned the names of all the others involved in the gruesome act”
Digging feature, Kenedy Agyepong, NPP MP for Assin-North gave a hint that a bigwig in the NDC who is also a journalist has been named by the suspect arrested in connection with the death of the Abuakwa North MP, Hon J B Danquah. He disclosed this on Oman FM’s boiling point and went further to state that President Mahama will be impeached if he is found to have a hand in the killing of the late legislator.
In a sharp response, Stan Dogbe, a Presidential Staffer at the Presidency issued statement condemning reports in the section of the media that sought to link him to the murder of JB.
Conclusion
The police had not yet concluded their investigation to determine if the person arrested as the prime suspect is the person who actually stabbed the MP to death or someone else did.
What actually, we need to probe further is who really killed JB and why the person did so. The person who stabbed him to death might have only carried out an assignment for money. The person who hired him to commit that crime is the true killer of JB.
Barely four days after the murder of JB, there was another assassination attempt on the Cape Coast North NPP Parliamentary candidate for 2016, Mrs. Barbara Asher Ayisi at her home. An attempted assailant who was caught also went to the home of Mrs. Ayisi with a knife and iron rod – the report says
Still in the NPP, last year, the Upper East Regional Chairman, Adams Mahama died in the hospital following an acid attack at his house night before his death. This incidence sent a shock wave in the vines of every Ghanaian.
Though the police have arrested a suspect in the case and arranged him before the court, Ghanaians are yet to know if the arrested suspect – Gogery Afoko was the one whose really killed Chairman Adam or someone else hired him and the reason for his attack.
So, fellow Ghanaians, WHO KILLED JB DANQUAH?
By Efo Korsi Senyo | senyo@awakeafrica.com | www.awakeafrica.com