Four persons appear in court for murder

Sekondi, March 5,-GNA-Four persons on Wednesday appeared before a Sekondi High Court for allegedly conspiring to commit murder and murdering Baba Yakubu Musa, a 65-year old cripple and hunch back at Bibiani. They are Seidu Apana Nuhu, a self-styled businessman resident at Accra, Kumasi and Bibiani, Abdul Rahman Mohammed alias Taller, a butcher at Bibiani, Halidu Musa alias Bon, a Bibiani based butcher and Haruna Abass, a tailor and nephew of the deceased.

The Court remanded them to re-appear on March 9 this year. Prosecuting, Mr. Samuel Patrick Akufo, Senior State Attorney, said the deceased lived in a kiosk near the Bibiani abattoir where he sells cola nuts and reared sheep and goats nearby. He said the deceased also had a house at a place called Ataakrom at Bibiani but he seldom slept there. Mr. Akufo said at about 9.00 p.m. on July 22. 2008, the deceased retired to bed in the kiosk and while he was asleep, Abass knocked at the door of the kiosk and identified himself.

Mr. Akufo said when the deceased opened the door, Abass entered with two men wearing black masks. He said Abass and the two masked men covered the head of the deceased with his bed sheet and tied his neck with a cable wire. Mr. Akufo said about five minutes later, Abass and the masked men bundled the deceased and carried him to a red pick-up belonging to Musa, parked near the kiosk and drove away. He said on July 23, Abass went to work at his tailoring shop near the abattoir and went to the kiosk to greet his uncle and enquire his condition of health as he usually did.

Mr. Akufo said his uncle who was also known as Busanga was not around but his walking stick and the cloths he wore the previous night were found in the kiosk. He said after all searching efforts proved futile, some people raised alarm that Busanga was abducted by certain strange persons in the night. Mr. Akufo said at about 10.45 a.m., Abass reported the disappearance of Busanga to the Bibiani Police and on July 25, the Police received a report that a lifeless body concealed in a fertilizer sack had been dumped in a bush near a refuse dump at New Compound. He said the complainant led the Police to the site and when the Police opened the sack they found the body to be that of an old man.

Mr. Akufo said a cable wire was tied around the neck of the body which was in an advance stage of decomposition. He said Abass identified the body as Busanga but the hunchback had been removed. Mr. Akufo said on August 11, the Police arrested Nuhu, Mohammed and Musa based on a tip-off about their involvement in the murder but all three accused denied any knowledge of the crime during interrogation. He said on August 29, Abass was also arrested in the course of investigations.