Killer houseboy caged

An Accra Central District Court has remanded into police custody a houseboy who allegedly killed his master at Ofankor in the Ga West Municipality of the Greater Accra Region.

Vanwood Kofi Asante, who has been charged with murder, had his plea reserved and is supposed to reappear in the court, presided over by Ebenezer Kwaku Asare, on April 7.

The decision is to enable Asante to assist the police in investigation.

When the case was called, the prosecutor, Chief Inspector Simon Apiorsornu, prayed the court to remand the accused person to enable the police carry out further investigation into the matter.

Vanwood Kofi Asante is alleged to have murdered his 60-year-old boss, Samuel Kwabena Poku, with a shovel at his residence at Ofankor.

Mr Poku had reportedly returned to Ghana from London to take part in a friend’s funeral and to undertake some projects when he was purportedly assassinated.

Asante was said to have told the family that Mr Poku left home to meet some unnamed persons who had called him for a supposed meeting.

Based on that information, some members of the family reported to the police at Ofankor that Mr. Poku had gone missing and that efforts to reach him on phone had proved futile.

According to them, they suspected that something untoward might have happened to him.

A son of the deceased then travelled from Kumasi to Accra to inquire about what might have gone wrong.

However, on March 15, 2017, it came to light that Mr Poku’s burnt body had been discovered at Pokuase, near Ofankor, and transported to the Police Hospital morgue for autopsy.

According to some residents at Pokuase, they suspected that the deceased might have been lynched by armed robbers and dumped at the place.

Neighbours of Mr Kwabena Poku became suspicious and caused the arrest of the houseboy for interrogation, claiming that they heard the man shouting for help previously.

When the case was transferred to the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Police Service, Asante allegedly confessed to murdering his boss.

The houseboy indicated that he killed Mr Poku after a short argument which resulted from a claim by him [the houseboy] that he had used an undisclosed amount of money to do some maintenance works in the house of his boss and wanted a refund.

However, his boss only promised him GH¢1,000 which he [houseboy] claimed was too meagre.

In the heat of the argument, Mr Poku allegedly asked the houseboy to pack out of his Ofankor house, resulting in a fight.

According to the suspect, Mr. Poku used a shovel to hit him and he retaliated by using the same implement to hit his boss, leading to his death.