tails emerging from the staples of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) in March 2002 dastardly murder of the overlord of Dagbon Traditional Area, points to the fact that ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor knows the killers of the late Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II, as the bureau supplied him with intelligence reports following the uncooperative attitude of his National Security Adviser, General Joshua Hamidu.
The BNI arrested some suspects as architects and executors of the carnage and brought them to Accra, but had to set them free after the setting up of the Wuako Commission of Enquiry which, strangely, did not include any security personnel, except two academicians and a retired Supreme Court Judge sitting as commissioners to investigate a crime.
Mr. Kufuor, according to insiders, was advised by the BNI against the setting up of a commission of enquiry but to allow it collaborate with the Police CID which has the capacity to investigate criminal matters, but his mind was made up, and he went ahead to set up the commission, not long after the BNI boss, Mr. Ellis Owusu-Fordjour, resigned from the bureau out of frustrations.
Sources within the bureau revealed to The Herald that the agency, way ahead of the killings, got intelligence that the Gbewaa Palace in Yendi was going to be attacked and had flooded the whole town with its personnel, who regularly sent information to the Castle through the BNI headquarters, but the intelligence was not acted upon leading to the carnage.
But shortly after the murders, some suspects who had been on the radar of the BNI were picked up and brought down to Accra. However, discussions between the BNI at the Castle with ex-President Kufuor, showed a lack of willingness to prosecute the perpetrators of the crime.
Elements within the bureau still habour the view that the Wuaku Commission which was made up of Justice I.N.K Wuaku, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court and two educationists – Professor Kwesi Yankah of the University of Ghana, Legon and Mrs. Florence Brew, was to wash-up a dirty crime. The killers are known and their names are still available to the security agencies, especially the BNI.
Meanwhile, The Herald has been informed that some persons who played active roles in the investigation, both within the police service and the BNI, have started coming forward with information on the murderers following last week’s discharge and acquittal of the 14 murder suspects by an Accra Fast Track High Court.
The Herald last week Friday reported that the failure by the state to get the killers of the late Ya-Na is because a key witness in the matter, an ex-Director of the BNI, Mr. Owusu Fordjour, has for the second time, been ignored.
Mr. Owusu Fordjour, who currently works as a private legal practitioner, resigned from his post as BNI boss following clashes he had with the then National Security Adviser, General Joshua Hamidu, over the latter’s handling of intelligence reports on the Yendi tragedy which led to the death of the Ya-Na and 40 of his subjects.
Sources close to Owusu Fordjour’s family, insist to The Herald that the man who left the system to “preserve his conscience and reputation” is the key person to talk to as he is privy to a lot of information on the crisis.
The murder of the Ya-Na took place between March 25 and 27, 2002, and by April 2002, the highly respected secret service man had resigned.
Quite shockingly, the BNI operative stationed in Yendi, whose name has been given only as Farouk, who gathered much of the information on the crisis and the murder, and forwarded them to BNI headquarters in Accra, is said to have been killed in a bizarre motor accident, after he had been transferred from the Yendi Station to Wa, in the Upper West Region, shortly after the killings.
BNI sources believe that Farouk’s death was planned and executed as he is seen as the primary source of reports filed to the BNI headquarters .Very vital reports on the crisis prepared by Farouk were sent to the Castle and given to prominent persons within the state security apparatus at the time, who could have acted swiftly to prevent the carnage in Yendi, but sat upon them.
The Wuaku Commission of Enquiry heavily indicted both the Ghana Armed Forces and the Ghana Police Service over their failure to control the crisis. But the 150-page report of the commission was silent on the role of the BNI in the crisis. Indeed, Messrs Owusu Fordjour and Farouk were not mentioned at all as they were not called to testify.
And from his office located near Trust Towers in Accra, directly opposite the Farrar Avenue Total Filling Station at Adabraka, Mr. Owusu Fordjour has been lamenting over the issue, especially to his close pals who visit and share sticks of cigarette with him under big Nim trees in front of his office.
The Monday, May 6, 2002, edition of the Daily Graphic newspaper quoted sources as saying that relations between the former BNI head and his National Security boss hit rock bottom, when Owusu Fordjour was reported to have by-passed him and sent important intelligence information on the death of the Ya-Na and 40 others, directly to the president.
The Graphic report said that Mr. Owusu Forduor’s frustrations began when reports on the events in Yendi sent to him by the Yendi BNI officer (Farouk) which he forwarded to the National Security Adviser for action, were allegedly not acted upon.
The subsequent detailed reports from Yendi which allegedly bordered on the complicity of some people in the tragedy and for which the National Security Adviser was believed not to be well disposed to acting on, were therefore, sent directly to the top.
When the information on this level of reporting eventually got to General Hamidu, he flew into a rage, and accused Mr. Owusu Fordjuor of disloyalty and back-stabbing, and said that he could no longer work with him.
“Mr. Owusu-Fordjuor was also said to have expressed his displeasure at the way and manner important matters of national security were being mishandled, leading to the commission of blunders, and said he could no longer function in such a situation, and offered his resignation,” the Graphic report said.
According to the report, the Yendi District BNI officer had been highly commended by Mr. Owusu Fordjuor and the top hierarchy of the BNI, for displaying a keen sense of duty, hard work and proficiency in sending detailed reports on the events in Yendi before, during and after the killing of the Ya-Na and 40 others at the Gbewaa Palace.
“When contacted for his reaction on the matter, General Hamidu made it clear that as the security adviser, he is not supposed to talk to journalists. He, however, dismissed the allegations as a figment of someone’s imagination,” the Daily Graphic said.
Portions of the Wuaku Commission expressed regret at the relative indifference and inaction by key state and government agencies during the crisis. Apart from the inaction of security institutions, key government functionaries were either not at post at Yendi or claimed to be indisposed at the height of the crisis.
