Klagon Chief, six others arraigned for murder

The Chief (Mantse) of Klagon, a suburb of Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region has been arraigned together with six others before the Kaneshie District Court for the murder of one Ibrahim Mohammed Abass.

Nii Bortey Klan I, also known as Samuel Nii Bortey Kofi is a traditional ruler while Hamidu Fuseini (A2), aka Sankara, Tahiru Mamudu (A3) aka Tsikata, Haruna Yakubu (A4), Latif Moro(A5), Kwaku Anane (A6) aka Kobo and Richard Annang Kotey (A7) are also facing a charge of conspiracy to murder.

Apart from Nii Klan, said to be a traditional ruler, the rest are unemployed and are landguards to him.

Three others, Abdul Baasi Mohammed (A8) aka Awudu Buju, Yahaya Mohammed (A9) aka Olu and Osmanu Ibrahim (A10) aka OC are on the run.

Before Her Worship, Ama Adomako Kwakye, the Magistrate at the Kaneshie District Court in Accra on Thursday, February 4, 2021, the two charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder were read to them, but their plea was not taken.

They have been remanded in custody to reappear on February 18, 2021.

What happened?

Inspector Richard Amoah, the prosecutor in a brief fact presented to the court said Nii Bortey Klan I, is the chief of Klagon whereas the rest are unemployed but are landguards to the chief with Fuseini (A2) as the right-hand man of the chief.

According to the prosecutor, Richard Annang Kotey (A7) is a movie actor and confidant of Nii Klan while adding that all the accused persons live at Klagon, Ashaiman and Teshie.

Inspector Amoah told the court that, having been vested with the authority by Nii Klan, to guard lands at Klagon, all accused persons and those at large sometime in 2020 were instructed by Nii Klan to prevent Ibrahim Mohammed Abbass, (deceased) who was once a close confidant and very instrumental in the installation and reign of A1 from developing portions of the land at Ramsar Site which he claimed had been sold out.

The prosecutor told the Court that following the continual struggle over the parcel of land between the deceased and A1, the deceased left the camp of A1 and joined the opposing faction in the protracted land litigation.

Plot to kill

He said, this incident and other related matters of the deceased having a hand in the seizure of uncustomed vehicles from A1, resulted in a plot to kill Abass (deceased).

He told the court that, the insistence by Abass on developing the land resulted in a physical confrontation with the accused persons destroying footing Abass had started on the said land amidst threats of life.

Inspector Amoah told the court that, notwithstanding the facts that, A1 initiated a civil action against Abass (deceased) and one Gabriel Akotia, he conspired with Kwaku Anane (A6), Richard Annang Kotey (A7) and Abdul Baasi Mohammed (at large) to kill Abass.

He told the court that, Hamidu Fuseini (A2), Kotey (A7), Baasi Mohammed and their accomplices met in the house of A1 in the morning of November 15, 2020, at Klagon to execute their plan, to kill Abass.

Nii Klan’s Instructions

The prosecutor told the Court that, at that meeting, A1, instructed Fuseini (the guard leader) to lead Anane, and three others to the house of Abass to dig a trench across his main gate, purposely to prevent Abass from getting out of his house with his private car.

Fuseini, he said led the team to execute the directive given them by A1 but later in the day, when Abass was informed by a witness in the case of the trench in front of his main gate, he instructed the witness to cover it up. But, according to the prosecutor the witness was prevented.

Abass he said was later attacked by Fuseini and four others while on his motorbike to his private residence. He was kidnapped amidst gun firing and put into A2’s 4×4 Kia vehicle and drove him away to an unknown destination.

Klagon Police headquarters

The prosecutor said the son of Abass who chanced upon the attack on his father informed the mother and a report was made to the police at the Klagon District Headquarters.

Inspector Amoah said the District Commander at Klagon, immediately called A2 on his cell phone to produce Abass at the station, but he ignored and with the connivance of his accomplices, went ahead and murdered Abass and later dumped his lifeless body in a bush within Klagon vicinity.

Cause of death

The police he said, later conveyed the body to the police hospital mortuary where a postmortem examination was performed on it by Dr. Stephen Annan and Dr. Osei Owusu-Afriyie who gave the preliminary cause of death as “Asphyxiation, strangulation and suspected homicide.”

He said the examination concluded that Abass died an unnatural death and the accused persons were arrested after investigation.

He said ongoing investigation disclosed that, after Abass was kidnapped into A2 private vehicle, he was driven to A1 house and later taken to Klagon Ramsar Site where he was tortured to death.

He said further investigation disclosed that there was a continuous and consistent mobile phone communication between A1 and his accomplices prior to the commission of the crime, during and after the crime.

Empty prose

Lawyer Asigri Abariga, one of the lawyers for the accused persons in his initial response to the facts adduced to support the charges, he described it as “empty prose.”

He said the narration by the prosecutor was an attempt to fabricate and concoct stories against the accused persons rounded up in various places to deal with them by way of demanding them.

He said the facts before the court is an attempt to throw dust into the eyes of the court since there are no land guards in Ghana.

He said Nii Klan, is a traditional ruler who knows the implications of murder and therefore, it was not correct to describe the other accused persons as his land guards.

He prayed the court to discharge the accused persons.

Kojo Osei-Odame, another of the lawyers prayed the court to instruct the prosecution to take his Anane to hospital since he was sick.

He said, prosecution was always eager to take suspects to custody but when it comes to doing the needful thing, they don’t do.

The Kaneshie District Court presided over by Ama Adomako Kwakye after listening to the lawyers and prosecutor, declined the request to discharge accused persons.

She, however, urged prosecution to ensure the necessary steps are taken to attend to the accused persons medically.

The case adjourned to February 18, 2021.