Kume Preko killer busted!

The Crusading Guide writes that at long last the alleged leader of the "killer gang" that perpetrated the Kumepreko May 11, 1995 mayhem in the streets of Accra has been arrested.

Joseph K. Asamani alias "Black Shirt", a commando based at the then Sankara Barracks located at the Castle, was picked up last Tuesday at the Accra General Post Office upon a tip off from the paper, to help the Police to unveil the criminals involved in the May 11 killings.

He was picked up whiles at work as a customs officer responsible for checking and dispatching of parcels.

On May 11, 1995, Asamani reportedly led a gang of men in a white Nissan Patrol (with registration no. ARC 9110) belonging to President Rawlings' Personal Security squad, based at the Castle, to counter the Kumepreko demonstration. Lantei Charles Annan, also a Commando, was seen to have leapt out of this vehicle at Adabraka (Farisco area) in Accra, and gunned to death, 14 year-old Ahunu Honger who was not part of the Kumepreko demonstrators. He had just emerged from behind a wall with a sister.

Eye witness accounts said that the about eight men on board the Nissan Patrol, in the wake of the gunning down of Ahunu Honger, launched into a trigger happy rampage in the streets of Accra and were said to have fired shots onto the ground, scaring people to scramble for their dear lives. Following the disclosure of the names of Lantei Charles Annan and 'Black Shirt' as part of a gang that had caused the loss of the lives of some innocent citizens, the two men assumed a low-key profile.

The Kumepreko demonstration, was a mass protest action organized by the Alliance For Change (AFC) against the Value Added Tax (VAT) levied against Ghanaians and the generally high cost of living that was then prevailing in the country.