Ataa Ayi, Asante Agyekum and Criminal Justice 1
The name Yaw Asante Agyekum is trending on all media platforms: broadcast, print and especially in social media.
Yaw Asante Agyekum has been trending because he has been released from prison following a successful appeal against his conviction mounted by ‘yours truly’ in 2019.
Even though the initial Notice of Appeal was filed in June 2019, I had been pursuing the case for well over five years before that trying to gather the requisite documentation for the appeal proper.
The story has gone viral, and rightly so, because this tale is a classic case of a miscarriage of justice — he has been wrongly incarcerated for the good part of 23 years.
Some of the facts of the case have been misrepresented in the various media outlets so I wish to set the record straight.
To begin with, I undertook this case ‘pro bono’, that is I received no money for my work.
This was because I believed that an injustice needed to be undone.
Secondly, Agyekum was never an ‘accomplice’ of Ataa Ayi, the notorious armed robber, and there is no evidence to associate him with any crime.
Agyekum only knew Ataa Ayi as a driver living in the area. Now to the real story behind the viral news.
Story
Yaw Asante Agyekum was a budding young motorbike repairer at Korle Woko, Accra, in the early 90s.
According to his contemporaries, whom I came across by virtue of undertaking his appeal, he was a virtuoso mechanic.
As a result of his special skill and expertise, he attracted a large clientele, one of whom was the dreaded and notorious armed robber at the time, Ataa Ayi.
Apparently (I was still finding my feet in legal practice in England at the time) there was a massive manhunt for Ataa Ayi, owing to the sheer terror and harassment he was meting out to his victims.
After yet another horrific and dastardly robbery, the police were under extreme pressure to apprehend him.
As consistently happens, even though it is unfortunate and regrettable, the police ‘cut corners’ in their bid to arrest Ataa Ayi.
Somehow, they got a hint that Ataa Ayi and his gang frequented the mechanic shop that Agyekum operated.
He (Agyekum), therefore, fell under the radar of the police in their quest to arrest Ayi.
Following a tip-off, the police followed Agyekum and arrested him at a church service.
His mother had been taken ill and had been sent to “Awoyo” — a spiritual church in Ghana that bases their worship on traditional African methods of healing — for healing rituals.
