Residents of Atadeka, near Ashaiman, in the Kpone-Katamanso District of the Greater Accra region are living in constant fear over what they describe as serial killers taking over their town and killing children with impunity.
Seven deaths are said to have been reported so far within a period of three months, with the recent one being the brutal murder of a 7-year-old girl, Ruth Ankomah, some weeks ago. The little girl was strangled to death by a 20-year-old Togolese national, Lucas Agbadzi—a mason apprentice—who confessed to have been contracted by a high profile personality in the vicinity to undertake the heinous crime.
The deceased was found naked in the suspect’s container which served as his room, naked with a swollen vagina and blood oozing from her mouth. Her dress was found behind a plywood in the room. Children’s dresses believed to belong to those who had earlier been reported missing were also found in an obscure place in the container.
Lucas told the Ashaiman police when he was arrested that one Alhaji, whose name he could not mention, contracted him to kill the girl, so he could offer him a cash amount of GHc 40, 000, a 4 wheel vehicle and a house.
Just a day after young Ruth was found dead in Lucas’ room, the Assembly Member for the area, Nii Laryea, granted an interview an Accra-based radio station, Adom FM, where he made claims to the effect that he was aware of some ‘big men’ in the area who were behind the continuous killings that had bedeviled them.
But he did not mince words when he publicly mentioned the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Setho Classic Engineering Company Ltd, a company headquartered in the town, as the main architect of the serial murder, particularly the one involving Ruth.
Since then, tongues have been wagging that Dr. Seth Kwame Sallah was a murderer whose source of wealth was questionable, creating an uncomfortable atmosphere for him to operate as some gullible ones did not want to have anything to do with him. The townsfolk bought so much into this perception, to the extent that a demonstration, which saw some 40 people in attendance, was organized to draw attention to the upheaval.
When Nii Laryea was contacted on phone, he admitted making those allegations against the estate developer, claiming that failure on the part of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and personnel of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the National Police Headquarters to arrest the 39-year-old entrepreneur had put him at sea.
“The boy took us to the house he was promised if he does the killing and I know that house belongs to Seth. He asked the boy to do the killing.” But when asked further if the boy confessed that he was indeed sent by Dr. Sallah, he refused to comment but instead said he knew what the young CEO and his group could do.
For his part, Dr. Sallah told this reporter that he was taken aback when his name was mentioned in the recent killings, saying “I was at the hospital when my operations manager called to inform me that he heard Nii Laryea on radio accusing me for the murder of the young girl, who I have never seen before. In fact, I was absent from work for about a week due to my ill health. “
While maintaining he did not have it easy with family and friends when the news broke out, his stance is that the police should do due diligence by inviting him and any person involved in the case, so they get to the bottom of the matter.
Expressing anger by the attempts by some people to soil his image, he insisted that “the police should thoroughly investigate the matter and punish anyone involved. I am willing to cooperate at all times,” he added.
The death of the little girl, Dr. Sallah noted, has shocked residents of the area and thus called on all parents and guardians in the area to monitor the movements of their children very well to ensure that cases of that nature do not resurface.
Contributing to the issue, the Assembly Member for the Bossah Electoral Area in Kubekro near Atadeka, Alhaji Iddrisu Kojo Annang Nii-Adjieteh, blamed the upsurge in land guards in the town as the cause of the murders they were faced with.
He, therefore, called on the police to protect them by regulating the activities of land guards in the town.
Meanwhile, checks from the police revealed that Lucas has been transferred to the National Police Headquarters to assist in investigations. He has not mentioned any name in connection with the murder yet.
