Teenagers planned to demand ransom before ritual - Prosecutor

The two teenagers who allegedly killed a 10-year-old boy at Coca Cola, near Lamptey, a suburb of Kasoa in the Central Region, had initially planned to kidnap him to demand a ransom of GH¢5,000, according to the prosecutor.

Putting the two teenagers before the Ofaakor District Magistrate Court Tuesday in their first appearance in court, the Prosecutor, Chief Inspector Ernest Agbo, said the accused - Felix Nyarko, aka Yaw Anane, 16, a mason labourer, who is the first accused, and Nicholas Kini Kwame, 18, a student and second accused, had planned to take the money and add Ishmael Mensah Abdallah, the deceased, to it to present to a spiritualist for rituals..

Plan

"The accused initially planned to kidnap deceased Ishmael and demand ransom of GH¢5,000 from his mother, which they would add to send him for the rituals.

On the arrival of Ishmael (at the uncompleted facility), they realised that kidnapping him would be a difficult task and so they decided to kill him,” Chief Inspector Agbo said.

The accused persons were last Saturday arrested following the murder of Ishmael, a Class Four pupil, for ritual purposes.

At the court sitting, presided over by Mrs Rosemond Vera Ocloo, the two were remanded in police custody to reappear on April 20, 2021.

This is to allow the police more time to conduct their investigations into the matter.

Facts

Presenting the facts of the case, Chief Inspector Agbo said the two teenagers, who lived at Lamptey, had been friends since 2008.

He said for some time now Felix had been watching Ghana Television channels which entertained Mallams and other spiritualists to promote their prowess in making people instant millionaires.

Felix, according to the prosecutor, made his intention known to Nicholas, who advised that there was a certain spiritualist in the Volta Region who could do it for them.

"The second accused, who does not own a phone, provided the phone number of the said spiritualist to the first accused, who has access to his mother's phone.

"After contacting the said spiritualist, he agreed to help if only they could provide a human being and GH¢5,000 for the rituals," he said.

Chief Inspector Agbo explained that on Saturday, April 3, 2021, the accused persons settled on Ishmael, 10 years, 11 months, the son of the complainant, Mr Frank Mensah Abdallah, adding that the second accused then went to hide in an uncompleted building near the first accused person's house where they planned to carry out their operation.

"The accused persons armed themselves with a club, a piece of cement block and shovel as their weapons, and the first accused, who is close to Ishmael, lured him to the uncompleted building with convincing words that his friend was selling a video game..

Killing

Nicholas, the prosecutor further said, then picked the club and hit Ishmael hard on the back of the neck, while Felix "used the cement block to hit his head, killing him instantly".

In the course of the act, he said, Felix's younger sister, eight, sensed that something was going on and so she walked towards the direction of the uncompleted building but was driven away by her elder brother.

He said after murdering Ishmael, the accused persons dug a shallow grave, buried the deceased and left the scene, so that they would return in the night to convey the body to the Volta Region for the rituals.

"But luck eluded them when Felix's sister went to inform her father, Mr Nyarko, who is Felix's stepfather, that something had gone amiss in the uncompleted building.

"Mr Nyarko went to the scene and saw that the place had been disturbed, and when he decided to remove the surface sand, he found the body of the deceased covered with sand," he said, adding that Mr Nyarko quickly confronted the first accused, who confessed and mentioned the second accused as his accomplice.

Chief Inspector Agbo said the accused persons were subsequently arrested and handed over to the police.

He said efforts were ongoing to arrest the spiritualist.

He told the court that Felix's parents could not determine his exact age and so they would need some time to do that.

Trial court

Responding, the presiding judge said the court had wanted to hear the case at the Juvenile Section, but when it realised that Nicholas was 18 years, it decided to hear the case in an open court.

She said once the entire process was over, Felix could be taken through the Juvenile Justice System.

She indicated that the actual case would not be tried at the District Court but rather the High Court, due to the gravity of the offence.