Contract killings soar in Accra; Ga chiefs, kingmakers appeal to IGP

Investigations by Today have revealed that between December 2012 and June 2017, some innocent persons were murdered by unknown assailants across the length and breadth of the Greater Accra Region.

According to Today’s investigations, at least 116 people, including eleven traditional rulers, four national security personnel and a Member of Parliament (MP), were gruesomely murdered in their homes or at various locations.

The nature of all the killings suggests that the victims were carefully selected, ambushed and slaughtered.

Some of the communities where these high profile personalities were killed include Ardeyman, Apolonia, Prampram, Gbawe, Shiashie, Dawhenya and Miotso.

The rest are Dansoman, Ayikai Doblo, Peace Village, Tuba, Bortianor, Adjiriganor Ashaiman, Labadi, Santa-Maria Last Stop and Teshie-Nungua.

In all these murders one major motive was land and chieftaincy disputes as well as political.

The recent of such killings was the one that occurred at Ardeyman where some assailants killed the Development Chief of the town, Nii Tetteh Sarbah, and two other kingmakers, who were also killed in a gun battle between inhabitants of Dawhenya and Miotso in the Ningo-Prampram District.

Though the Criminal Investigative Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service is still investigating most of these cases, Today however, believes that some prime suspects have still not been arrested.

The situation has left many chiefs, kingmakers and citizens of the Ga state worried.

The CID, according to our sources, has dispatched a number of plain-clothes detectives into such communities “to help arrest some of these criminals.”

Appropriate as these moves by the police may be, Gbese Mantse and Adonten of Ga State, Nii Okaija III, who on countless occasions received threats to his life and at one time was given a police body guard, applauded the current police administration for their vigilance.

“This phenomenon of contract killings is alien to our peaceful co-existence,” he said.

“It has been partly brought on by greed for Ga lands in particular,” the chief noted.

He explained that contracts to kill are awarded when business partners feel cheated and the regular grievance-resolving avenues avail them no hope of redress.

In this regard, Nii Okaija II called on Ghanaians, especially those involved in partnerships with non-Ghanaians, to watch their behaviours.