Land guard arrested for murder

The Adentan Police have arrested a man believed to be a member of a gang of land guards suspected to have attacked an estate developer and shot one person to death at Ashiyie in Accra.

The suspect, Enoch Nii Okpoti Konney Adumanye, 31, and his gang had been hiding since the incident took place on April 26, 2014. 

The police found the bullet-ridden body about 300 metres away from a car in a bush at Ashiyie on the said day.  

Two others who sustained gunshot wounds were admitted to the 37 Military Hospital which in critical conditions.  

Suspects on the run are Francis Alalemo, alias Frankie; Bright Ashong, Francis Adjei Lomo and others yet to be identified.

Citizens’ arrest

The Accra Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP), Mr Christian Tetteh Yohonu, last Saturday said the suspect was spotted by some residents of Ashiyie at his hideout at La in Accra about 7 p.m. on May 11, 2014.

The residents managed to arrest and hand him over to the police.

Mr Yohonu told journalists that a landowner, Mr Kwame Ofori Kyeretwie, had, in 1995, bought a large tract of land at Katamanso, near Amanfrom and Ashiyie, which had become the subject of litigation.    

Kyeretwie had built a furniture workshop and his residence on part of the land.

However, while the litigation over the land was still pending before court, the suspects started harassing him and his workers to vacate the disputed land.

Workers attacked 

In the morning of April 26, 2014, the suspects attacked Mr Kyeretwie’s workers at the furniture workshop, where Alalemo used the butt of a gun to hit the waist of one of the workers, Yahaya Issaka.

Alalemo is said to have warned the workers to leave the shop or face his wrath.

The suspects later laid ambush in a Kia Sorento vehicle and a black Golf car, with registration numbers GR 7520 -13 and GH 7869 Y respectively, and attacked Mr Kyeretwie and his workers, who were heading to the residence of one of the suspects.

Indiscriminate shooting 

Mr Kyeretwie was with three of his workers, namely Kojo Abankwa, Ali Musa and Agbangba Yakubu, when “the suspects attacked them and started shooting indiscriminately”, the regional commander said.

Musa’s body had several gunshot marks on the chest, stomach and other parts and lay about 300 metres from Mr Kyeretwie’s car.

Though Yakubu escaped unhurt, the driver of the vehicle, Abankwa, sustained injuries to the thigh, arm and other parts of the body, while Mr Kyeretwie was hit in the arm, lips and thigh. 

Writer’s email: emelia.ennin@graphic.com