Police grab suspected killer of Prampram Mankralo

A man described by the police as a notorious land guard who is allegedly linked to the assassination of the Mankralo of the Prampram Traditional Area, Nene Atsure Benta III, almost a year ago, is in the grips of the law enforcement officers.

The suspect, Nii Narh, aka Yellow, was ferreted out from his hideout at Kyekyewere village near Zion Camp in the Central Region.

The Dunkwa-On-Offin Divisional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Mr Innocent Avevor, who confirmed the arrest to The Chronicle, said the suspect had since been handed over to the Tema Regional Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to continue with enquiries into the case.

Nene Atsure Benta III was assassinated on Thursday December 13, 2018 whilst driving his car on the road between Appolonia and Afienya in the Ningo Prampram District of the Greater Accra Region.

According to ACP Mr Avevor, the operation to smoke out Yellow was a result of intelligence dispatched to the division from the Police Headquarters in Accra.

He went on that the suspect, who was seeking ‘divine fortification’ from one of the four ‘Zions’ in the area, suddenly abandoned his fugitive status and started roaming the narcotic ghettos and drinking spots.

The Divisional Police boss stated that the exercise to nab Yellow was accomplished by three hardworking detectives who used only a few days to locate him.

According to the police chief, on the scheduled day, as though it was an intervention from the heavens, electricity supply in Zion went off temporarily endangering the lives of the operatives.

Since Yellow was scheduled to visit a particular drinking spot, the detectives laid ambush in a makeshift structure of a beer bar overnight, and their effort was finally rewarded.

Early in the morning, Yellow appeared at the spot, but the owner was yet to open for the day’s work.

Anxious, Yellow made phone call to a biker who arrived in no time to pick him to his village hideout.

So as not to incur any hostility from people around, the plainclothed policemen trailed the bike from a distance and accosted him at his supposed fortress.

ACP Mr Avevor went on that a team in a standby vehicle moved to the jurisdiction and took custody of the suspected fugitive, who was later sent to Tema for investigations to continue into the murder of the chief.

An official police source in Tema confirmed to this reporter that Yellow was in their custody pending further interrogation.

From the Police Headquarters, the paper gathered that Yellow, who is alleged to have taken part in a number of cases, and was placed on its radar, relocated to the Zions enclave about six months ago.

According to sources, Yellow is fond of issuing threats of death and was reportedly citing the assassination of the Prampram Mankralo as a sign of bravery at the slightest provocation.

Reports of him got to the Police Headquarters, resulting in the dispatch of undercover detectives, who posed as farmers in search of land to cultivate commercial crops, hence his cover was blown.

Nene Atsure Benta III, then Acting President of the Prampram Traditional Council, was on the 12th of December 2018 supposedly de-stooled by his clan kingmaker.

On the night of the said date, a number of armed persons invaded the coastal town of Prampram, which hosted the first police station in Ghana, and terrorised the residents, including some fetish priestesses and the clan’s kingmaker, the latter who was forcibly compelled to reverse his decision of de-stoolment.

The following day, December 13, 2018, the Mankralo attended a meeting at the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs at Dodowa, but was said to have left unceremoniously.

At the same time, the group, which purported to have destooled him, was addressing a press conference at the Don Bosco Technical Institute near Afariwa Junction on the previous day’s incident. Journalists present reached the Mankralo on phone for his side of the story, but he asked them to meet him at Prampram for the needed clarification.

Few minutes later, he was reported to have been shot dead by unknown occupants of a van as he drove on the Appolonia-Afienya road.

Exactly a month later, January 13, 2019, the Marketing and Public Affairs Manager of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), Tema, Mrs Josephine Tandoh Asante, was found murdered in her Emefs Hillview Estates residence, near Afienya.

Three days on, January 16, 2019, undercover journalist Ahmed Suale of Tiger Eye PI fame was shot and killed by gunmen on a motorbike at Madina, a suburb of Accra.