Cop arrested for killing suspected murderer
A man wanted by the police in a murder case at Teshie, an Accra suburb, was at dawn yesterday gunned down by policemen who had been detailed to arrest him.
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Adesha Bagagyi is said to have been shot after he and an accomplice had attacked the policemen with a machete and an axe.
The accomplice, Joseph Adjei, who was said to be harbouring the suspect, was also shot and killed.
The policeman whose action caused the fatalities, Sergeant Jacob Adorye, had led a team which responded to a tip-off that one out of five suspects wanted in connection with a murder in a chieftaincy dispute at Teshie in August 2015 was hiding at Nmai-Dzorn, near Adentan in Accra.
At Nmai-Dzorn, the police team are said to have gone to Adjei’s house but the two attacked them.
Meanwhile, Sergeant Adorye has been detained in accordance with police regulations and standard policing practices.
Briefing
Briefing journalists on the incident in Accra yesterday, the Public Relations Officer of the Accra Regional Police Command, Assistant Superintendent of Police Mrs Afia Tenge, said investigations, under the leadership of the Regional Crime Officer, Superintendent of Police Mr Paul Kontonma, had been initiated.
As of the time of filing this report, a team of investigators and crime scene experts had been dispatched to the scene of the incident to assess the situation and report on it.
The families of the deceased had also been contacted to assist the police in their investigations.
Background
According to Mrs Tenge, a group of men had attacked a chief at Teshie on August 25, 2015 for sprinkling the Ga traditional food, kpokpoi, during the celebration of the Homowo Festival.
The police, she said, intervened to avert a possible clash by advising the chief and the opposing faction to celebrate the festival in their homes, without the sprinkling of kpokpoi on the streets, until the chieftaincy dispute was fully resolved.
Yet, she said, on August 26, 2015, while the celebration was going on at the chief’s palace, the opposing faction, armed with offensive weapons, attacked the celebrants and killed a man identified as Sulley Musah.
In the course of investigations, a witness who captured Musah’s murder with a mobile phone presented the evidence to the police.
Subsequently, some of the persons captured on the video were arrested and put before the Accra Circuit Court.
The court issued a bench warrant for the arrest of five other persons, identified as Armah Torgbe, Armah Asaawa, Ashittey Amo, Armah Kuntoh and Bagagyi, who were on the run.
However, all attempts to arrest them proved futile in the last five months until the police had the tip-off last Wednesday.