Human Blood At Prof. Yankah's House

Accra - The Legon Police in Accra are at the dead end of an investigation into circumstances under which a pool and several drops of blood got to be deposited in the courtyard of Prof. Kwesi Yankah's residence at No 19 Lower Hill at the University of Ghana.

According to Mrs. Victoria Yankah, wife of the head of the Linguistics Department of the nation's premier university, she found the blood when she woke up at about 6:am on Sunday November 21, this year and immediately raised the alarm.

"What was surprising was that both doors leading to the compound were locked. There was no evidence that the house had been broken into. There was no evidence of injury to any person or the two dogs in the house."

Mrs. Yankah told the Chronicle that when the house boy, Komlavi, who then lived in the boys quarters, closest to the incident, was questioned, he denied any knowledge of how the substance got to be deposited in the house.

"Though he claimed he did not know the source of the blood, the house boy told me that the volume of the blood and the manner of its deposit made it look like coming from a severed arm of a human being," Mrs. Yankah told the Chronicle.

In his statement to the Legon police, Prof. Yankah, brother of Mr. Kojo Yankah, who resigned his post of Minister of State in the Rawlings Government, wrote: "On Sunday, 21st of November 1999, I was woken up from bed by my wife at approximately 7am to see what appeared to be a mystery at the boys quarters. I rushed to the boys quarters to see a pool of blood, partly covered with sand by the houseboy. Even though the blood was largely concentrated at one spot, two rows of bloodstains could be traced to the gate of the boys quarters. The bigger courtyard beyond the gate had two more stains.."

According to the Professor "on questioning our house boy, who has lived with us for four years, he said he has no idea about the source of the blood, and that he woke up to find it there and since it looked messy, he decided to scoop sand and spread over it. Mystified, we wondered if any of our two dogs could be bleeding. One of the dogs was out, but not bleeding. When the second dog later returned, it had no bruises on it. We asked the boy whether he heard the dogs barking in the night, he said no."

Prof. Yankah said they called in the police who responded immediately. Chief Inspector McCarthy, officer in charge of the station, went to the scene with a plain-clothed officer to investigate.

Behind his desk at the Legon Police Station, Chief Inspector McCarthy confirmed Yankah's story and said he and his men were equally baffled by the incident. "For all my experience as a policeman, I can say with all certainty that what I saw could not have been animal blood,' he told the Chronicle.

Meanwhile, Prof. Yankah has sent home the house boy and written to the Registrar of the university, Mr. Ted Konu, to provide his household with security.

About three years ago, while Prof. Yankah was out of the country on Sabbatical, two people attempted to abduct his wife. After a series of investigations the alleged culprits were apprehended but the Attorney- General's Department refused to prosecute the case.