Ya na's Killer Exposed

By Aaron Okyere

A number of Ghanaian intelligence operatives who the Daily Post has made contact with have fingered Major (rtd) Abubakar Suleimana as the brain behind the gruesome murder of Ya Na Yakubu Andani II on March 2002.

Major (rtd) Suleimana was a member of Ghana’s National Security Council during the first two years of the Kufuor Administration.

In a no-holes-barred interview with this paper at different times, the operatives said evidence and witnesses are available to prove that Major (rtd) Suleimana plotted and led in the murder of the Ya Na.

“There are pictures to prove it. There are pictures of him with the Liberian mercenaries he brought into the country to murder the Ya Na,” one of the operatives told the Daily Post.

Expatiating on the matter, the operative said Major (rtd) Suleimana brought thirty-five mercenaries from Liberia through Burkina Faso into Ghana. The mercenaries were initially camped at Jilio which is about thirty to forty-five minutes drive away from Bimbilla. Under a very huge hill there, the mercenaries trained. Later, they moved their camp to Nakpali, a village between Yendi and Bimbilla.

Nakpali is near the Oti River and is dotted with hills. The place is said to be conducive for guerilla training. There, they continued.

“Our officers on the ground, including the late Felix Faarong, took pictures of the mercenaries training in the bush. The mercenaries, at certain times, were caught by our cameras sniffing petrol from empty soft drink cans to get them ‘high’ for the operation at hand’ he said.

“Major (rtd) Suleimana’s movements and visits to the camp were monitored around the clock by BNI operatives including Faarong. The reports were sent to the Director of BNI, Mr. Owusu-Fordjour in Accra. Mr. Fordjour is an honorable man. In a meeting with his staffers before he resigned after the Ya Na was murdered, he said he was quitting because he would not allow others to scoop blood with his hands. What is more, he does not want anybody to refer to his children someday as the children of the murderer of the Ya Na.”

“Mr. Owusu-Fordjour would collaborate what we are saying if contacted. All the reports filed, including the movement of Major (rtd)Suleimana and his meetings with the mercenaries were submitted to him. It is strange that since the murder of the Ya Na, no one has invited the Former BNI Director for his input.” the operative said.

Another intelligence operative had this to say; “Operatives in Yendi before and during the attack on the Gbewa palace took pictures of Major (rtd) Suleimana with the mercenaries at Yendi as well the people dancing with the Ya Na’s head after they killed him,”

A Former operative told the Daily Post that Major (rtd) Suleimana lied when he told the Wuako Commission that he was in Accra and not Yendi at the time the Ya Na’s palace was under attack.

“Pictures of him at Yendi on that fateful day were taken. He was caught on camera with a leaf in his mouth leading the mercenaries towards the Gbewaa palace. That is why in his report afterwards, the Director of the BNI asked for his arrest”

The operative said Major (rtd) Suleimana returned from Yendi the night the Ya Na was murdered spotting a cut on his forehead which he sustained during the attack on the Gbewa Palace.

“He visited a hospital in Accra that night and had it stitched. When he reported back to his office at the BNI Operation Centre the following day, he was spotting plasters on his forehead. Let him tell the entire nation where he got the cut on his forehead which he always hides with a hat,” the operative said.

“The Major (rtd) Suleimana who appeared at JOY FM with Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey to show himself to the staff to prove that he was in Accra, and not Yendi on that fateful day was not Major (rtd) Suleimana.

JOY FM staffers didn’t know Major (rtd)Suleimana in person so they did not realize that the man who introduced himself as Major (rtd) Suleimana was not he.” Another intelligence operative this paper talked to said “…many of those who filed the reports to Accra from Yendi on Major (rtd) Suleimana’s involvement in the murder of the Ya Na are alive and ready to collaborate with the authorities to bring him to justice if contacted.”

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