JB Danquah's killer's confession is ‘total rubbish’ - Kweku Baako

The Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper, Kweku Baako Jnr has described the confession by the suspected killer of J.B. Danquah Adu who was the Member of Parliament for Abuakwa North as “rubbish.”

According to Mr Baako the accused person, Daniel Asiedu’s confession that he was contracted by some members of the New Patriotic Party to commit the act is nonsense.

Speaking on Joy News’ news analysis prgramme, Newsfile on Saturday, Mr Baako Jnr said similar occurrences in the past make it difficult for any reasonable person to acknowledge such confessions, especially when the suspect on trial is yet to appear in the dock.

“But for the fact that this was said in court, I would have ignored it with contempt. It appears to me to be total rubbish but because it was said in court, I am not going to run away from it,” Baako said.

Daniel Asiedu is facing committal processes at the District Court with another suspect, Vincent Bossu as the prime suspects in the murder of the law maker.

In court on Wednesday, he went on a confession spree, and claimed that he was contracted by some people to kill the parliamentarian.

In a startling confession before the Accra Central District Court on Wednesday, Asiedu. aka Sexy Don Don, alleged that he was contracted by some members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to kill Mr Danquah-Adu.

He further alleged that after his arrest, one of the supposed people who had hired him to assassinate the legislator visited him in detention and promised to reward him handsomely if he (Asiedu) accused members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of rather contracting him to kill Mr Danquah-Adu.

Asiedu also claimed that the supposed visitor promised to cater for all his needs immediately the NPP won the 2016 elections.

But, according to him, after that visit, he had not heard from his “contractors” and so he was ready to reveal their names.

Mr Danquah-Adu, who was the MP for Abuakwa North on the ticket of the NPP, was murdered at his residence at Shiashie in Accra on February 9, 2016.

Asiedu and another man, Vincent Bosso, are facing charges of murder and abetment of murder, respectively, for the MP’s death.

They are before the District Court for committal proceedings, after which the court will decide whether or not they have to stand trial at the High Court.

Police prosecutors were on Wednesday expected to inform the court if the Attorney-General’s Department was ready with its legal advice on the case.

But even before the court proceedings began, Asiedu raised his hands that he had something to say, and then the confession followed.

Asiedu gave his confession in English, albeit not in the form one would consider perfect English.

Read also: I was contracted to kill J.B. Danquah-Adu — Daniel Asiedu

Commenting on the development on Newsfile, Mr Baako said the whole episode on laughable and said he suspects the accused might have been coached to make the confession.

“In prison, some sort of coaching goes on there,” he said, adding “they also listen to the news, they read newspapers, they hear all sorts of things and they have friends there…very organised convicts who have been there for years.

“Some of them are better than lawyers and judges, they know the judicial system… they listen to things going on and they try to weave it into their system,” he added.

The veteran journalist said past incidents have made it difficult for him, personally, to believe confessions of such nature from convicts but said it was important for it to be subjected to all the needed scrutiny by the court.

Following the suspects' confession, however, his lawyer, Yaw Obuor has come to say his client was mentally unstable.

“I can tell you and I’ve said it that he has a mental problem, I applied for bail for him last week but the bail was refused. He’s aware that we were going to apply for bail for him again, it will be filed early next week,” he said in an interview with Joy FM.

J.B. Danquah was murdered at his home in February 2016.

But even that does not sit right with Mr Baako. He questioned why the lawyer is now making such revelations almost two years into the investigations.

“Why hasn’t he told the court all this while,” he queried, asking for earlier statements made by the suspect to be cross-examined all over again.

He, however, maintains that the confession is “rubbish, it will get nowhere. Unless and until there is something of evidential value to back it I will remain absolutely and eternally skeptical …I don’t believe the guy's story.”

Effutu MP, Afenyo Markin, who also contributed to the discussion, said the confession will have no implications because they are of no evidential value.

“Under our criminal jurisprudence, at this stage where a bail of indictment is being prepared, committal processes are being carried out. The man is not even in a witness box giving evidence so I even wonder how he is making these statements.

“Because prosecution is not leading evidence, there is no cross examination…so within the confines of the law, I don’t see how that statement will operate,” he explained.

The lawyer also chastised politicians for playing into the game by blaming each other when one of their own has been brutally murdered.

credit: Myjoyonline