Family of murdered Mfantseman MP suspects foul play

The family of the late Ekow Quansah Hayford, the MP for Mfantseman, has rubbished the narrative that he was shot by unknown assailants at Abeadze Dominase when returning from a campaign on the Mankessim-Abeadze road in the Central Region.

They believe the eyewitness accounts so far do not add up.

Patrick Eduama Annan, an uncle to the deceased, told Citi News they are suspecting something fishy in the killing of their relative.

“How can this be true and how can we accept this to be a true story. We doubt the whole story and for us to accept this, is very hard. We are just two months to the elections and tensions are rising. The security agencies should wake up and do their work,” he said.

According to an eyewitness, the suspected armed robbers stopped the MP's vehicle, together with those of others who had joined him on the campaign tour but the MP's driver attempted to drive through.

The driver was reportedly shot first which resulted in him losing control over the vehicle.

“The [NPP] campaign coordinator for the area was the one leading with his motorcycle so we saw that he had been stopped by the robbers, when we moved a step further, we saw that they were with guns. Ekow Quansah Hayford was seated at the front seat of the vehicle then he began to scream ‘armed robbers, armed robbers’, so he asked ‘What do we do?’” an eyewitness recounted.

According to him, they tried to escape but the robbers shot their vehicle and it stopped.

“They approached our vehicle and asked [us] to bring our valuable items. So, they took my phone and money and I heard them asking the MP to bring his phone and money when he responded that his money…his money and they pulled him out of the vehicle,” the eyewitness recalled.

He continued: “When the robbers started engaging the MP, then he [robber] said, ‘You politicians have made the country very hard to live in.’ They brought all of us down and asked us to lie prostrate so we thought they were going to shoot us. One stated that we are not after your life…so they asked the driver why he didn’t stop when he was asked to…”

The eyewitness remarked that the robbers shot the wrist of the driver who immediately began to scream “I’m dying, I’m dying…”

“While trying to escape, I heard some voices saying that the MP is dead. I reached [...] where he was shot and indeed, I met the lifeless Ekow Quansah Hayford,” the eyewitness said.