Were suspects one or more?

Timothy Gobah / Daily Graphic / Ghana Opinion Jan - 24 - 2014 , 07:34

I take keen interest, particularly in crime stories so when the “Tema murder cases” begun, I followed it with an eagle eye and analysed every stage of development in the cases.

The Daily Graphic in its report of the killing of an immigration officer published on December 30, 2013, has it that “a 36-year-old Immigration Officer, Kofi Quist Defor, was shot and killed by suspected armed robbers at his residence at Mataheko in Tema early in the morning.

According to the report, “Defor was shot in his living room around 3 a.m. despite pleas by his wife, Ms Kafui Mary Magdalene Tamakloe to the robbers to wait for her to go upstairs and bring them money if that was their reason for attacking her husband.”

The robbers reportedly took his laptop, ipad and two mobile phones after subjecting him to severe beating.

The report clearly shows that the crime was committed by not less than two criminals.

Subsequently, police intelligence led to the arrest of two immigration officers in connection with the crime.

Then, a certain driver, Aaron Takyi was arrested and arraigned before an Accra District Court for committing the heinous crime.

The report in the January 16, 2014 issue reported by Mabel Aku Baneseh had the facts of the case as follows: “At about 2 a.m. on December 28, 2013, Defor and his wife were asleep when the suspect (not suspects this time) scaled the wall into the house without the dog barking. According to the police, the dog did not bark because it knew Takyi” (emphasis).

Takyi, the facts say, broke into Defor’s bedroom, dragged him to the living room and subjected him to severe beating.

He was reported to have shot him (Defor) in the right shoulder and also hit him severally on the neck, rendering him unconscious. He (Takyi) then abandoned him and fled. Since the case is before the court of competent jurisdiction, I would not like to go into the merits of the case.

However, two suggestions are sufficient for consideration in the determination of the case.

1. In the first report, which was not denied by the police, the wife of Defor, Ms Tamakloe, a key witness and in whose presence the crime was committed, gave a lot of information, but these were missing in the facts as presented in court.

2. Are the police denying the earlier report that the robbers were two or more?

3. In my personal opinion, the case of dog barking or not should be left out of the question for now.

Timothy Gobah ,

Dansoman,

Accra.