Prof Benneh’s murder case: police to correct defects in charge sheet

The Kaneshie District Court on Friday ordered the police to put their house in order following detection of defects in the charge sheet of the murder case of Professor Emmanuel Yaw Benneh, the law lecturer, who was killed in cold blood at Agyiriganor.

The caution of the court came after the police presented a new charge sheet, which had the name of James Nana Womba, now deceased, and the prime suspect as the first accused person.

On the same new charge sheet, the names of Ebenezer Quaisie and Opambour Agya Badu Nkansah were identified as the second and third accused persons in the matter.

Womba, the deceased, has jointly been charged with the two surviving suspects in the new charge sheet.

The court, presided over by Ms Ama Adomako Kwakye, on seeing the defects, indicated that the court could not work with that charge sheet.

“You can’t read out charges to the dead. We can’t work with it. The proper thing should be done. The new charge sheet bears the name of the deceased,” she said.

“Prosecution put your house in order so that consolidation of the cases could stand but not the substitution”.

Adjourning the matter to January 20, the court urged the family members present to exercise restraint for justice to be served.

It said: “Nobody takes interest in adjourning the matter, rather the right things should be done in accordance with the law”.

The prosecutor, Ebenezer Teye-Okuffu, had consolidated the case dockets on the three accused persons and had substituted the old charge sheet with a new one.

Prosecution, therefore, prayed for a short date to amend the defects on the new charge sheet.

The police finally, on Friday, produced Nkansah, who had absented himself from court over ailment.

The Ghana News Agency observed that Nkansah, discharged from the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital after surgery on two legs and a thigh, was unable to access the Court building, hence a police officer had to carry him at his back to the third floor of the building that housed the court.

His lawyer, Mr Emmanuel Larbi Amoah, recounted that Nkansah was constrained as no one was committed to ensuring that his wounds were dressed after surgery.

According to Mr. Amoah, his client was detained at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital because no one was ready to pay for the surgery.

He, therefore, prayed the court to order the police to send Nkansah to the hospital for his wounds to be dressed, noting that if the wounds were left unattended, it would lead to infections and the unknown could happen.

James Nana Womba, Ebenezer Quaisei and Opambour Agya Badu Nkansah were initially held over the murder and abetment of crime.

The court preserved their pleas. Quasie and Nkansah have been remanded into lawful custody.

The facts of prosecution was that Akosua Benneh, the elder sister of Prof. Benneh was the complainant, while Womba was a domestic worker of Prof Benneh in his house at Agyirignor, near East Legon, in Accra.

On September 13, 2020, the body of the law lecturer was found in a pool of blood in a supine position with his hands and legs tied.

Prosecution said on September 13, 2020 investigations led to the arrest of Womba, who confessed to the crime and mentioned Nkansah and others as his accomplices.

On September 21, last year a post mortem conducted by one Dr Owusu Afriyie, a pathologist of the Police Hospital, revealed the cause of death to include strangulation and suspected homicide, prosecution said.