One hard fact of life that many seem not to realize is that secrets, no matter how crucial they may be, are very hard to keep forever. And with that same natural principle, it is not surprising that in spite of the odds, frantic efforts to submerge part of the truth in the notorious Amos Asante sex saga is just refusing to wash.
Like a cork held under water, more untold truths of the case, which had been hidden from the Ghanaian public all along, the latest being that a whopping $15,000 bribe recently paid at the Police Hospital and other places in Accra must have been responsible for the shameful twist of events in the case, keep unfolding every passing day.
The 77-year-old Mallam-based retired clerk reportedly had bouts of sex with a 14-year-old girl (name withheld), who was under his roof and in his care, and ended up having a baby with her. Asante allegedly threatened the teenager not to mention his name lest something fatal happened to her, but ended up being exposed when the girl became pregnant and could not hide the truth any longer.
She told the police and the courts that the septuagenarian was responsible for her pregnancy, having had sex with her from 2010 until she gave birth two years later, a charge the ‘old guy’ vehemently denied.
Presenting the facts of the case in an Accra Circuit Court, the prosecuting officer, ASP Sarah Ekua Acquah, said the complainant, Ofori Badu, is the father of the victim and a trader who lives at Kasoa, while the 14-year-old victim currently lives with her grandmother at Asiakwa in the Eastern Region.
The prosecutor noted that in 2010, the accused person had sexual intercourse with the victim and warned her not to tell anybody. The warning, according to the prosecution, scared her and so she kept the matter to herself until she became pregnant and had to spill the beans.
The accused person denied the charge and called for a DNA test. After a couple of months, ‘the result’ read in court was negative and thus temporarily set him off the hook.
What the general public does not know, however, is that between July 12, 2011, when the victim gave birth to a bouncing baby boy, and early 2012 when the said DNA result was read in court, a lot of water had passed under the bridge, leading to suspicions that only posterity will clarify.
Negative Realities has reliably gathered that when the matter was first reported to the Odorkor Police in Accra, Asante and his first Attorney, initially pleaded with the complainant behind closed doors for an out of court settlement, promising to take care of the baby, compensate the teenager with an undisclosed sum of money, further the education of the young mother, and set up a foundation to secure the future of the baby. When that deal did not go through other options were considered, including firing the Attorney and ‘doctoring’ the DNA results.
That aside, it again came to light that when the DNA results first arrived from wherever (South Africa?), an official from the Police Hospital called the victim’s parents on a cell phone to alert them that the results were positive, and hint that the accused had been indeed incriminated.
It was further revealed (with electronic evidence) that while Asante was in police custody, huge sums of monies, all close to $15,000, were levied from family sources in Germany, Britain, and the US, and quickly wired to Accra ostensibly to ‘plug certain holes’. Those whose pockets were lined with the bribes thus had the mandate to do whatever it takes: breaking any rule, violating any ethic, and if possible cutting any throat, so the accused does not go to jail.
Then, there were other allegations that contrary to the norm, the DNA results presented to the court was not in a sealed envelope.
Even though the case is still in court, tongues are already wagging in the diaspora over the way justice is about to be perverted in Ghana simply because one faction in a legal tussle is poor. But will it wash?
Court or no court, Negative Realities and its links in Accra, Germany, US and Britain are monitoring events closely, and will soon disclose the full details of the shameful bribes, silly phone calls and all the dirty other games that have suddenly permeated the police administration and judicial system, thanks to the influence of money.
The development goes to vindicate Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, who once wrote: ‘He that is of the opinion that money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money ’.
While nobody wants to hold the Courts to ransom, there are certainly more questions than answers in this pathetic case, and only a fresh DNA will establish the real truth.
This is possible; after all didn’t a similar re-test in an on-going court case recently turn cocaine into washing soda?
More Anon.
