The Accra Central Magistrate Court has committed two persons being held over the murder of Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa North for trial at the High Court.
They are Daniel Asiedu, 19, aka Sexy Don Don, trader and Vincent Booso aka Junior Agogo.
The court, presided over by Magistrate Stephen Owusu, was convinced that the suspects had a case to answer in the death of the NPP MP.
Sexy Don Don has been slapped with the charge of murder while Agogo faces the charge of conspiracy to rob.
The prosecution held that Agogo at about 1am on February 9, 2016 at Shaishie at East Legon in Accra conspired with Sexy Don Don to commit murder.
Sexy Don Don, according to the prosecution on the same day and time intentionally and unlawfully caused the death of the MP.
Agoogo, according to the prosecution’s Bill of Indictment, did not enter the house of the MP because of a misunderstanding with Sexy Don Don on which house to rob.
Committal
Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), said the accused persons are friends and that Sexy Don Don talked to Junior Agogo about the plan to embark on a robbery expedition.
She said the two got to the house of the deceased in the wee hours of February 9 where Sexy Don Don identified the MP’s house.
The DPP said Junior Agogo disagree with Daniel on which house to rob, resulting in a dispute between the two, adding that the misunderstanding became pronounced so Daniel asked Junior Agogo to hand over all the tools for the operation.
Ms Obuobisa contended that Daniel entered the house of the deceased at 1pm and noticed that that light in the room of the deceased was on but had no metal bars to prevent him from entering.
The court heard that Daniel grabbed a ladder and climbed onto the porch and entered the room through the window.
She said the deceased, who had returned home at 11:40 the previous day was fast asleep.
Daniel, upon entering the room, started searching the room and in the process the deceased woke up in an attempt to stop him from taking anything from the room.
“Daniel who was armed with a knife stabbed in the neck and chest of the deceased several times and he collapsed, the accused also sustained several cuts.
The prosecutor said Daniel took three Iphones and jumped out of the house through the adjourning house.
The security man later discovered the ladder against the wall raised an alarm to help the MP who was in a pool of blood.
Report from the hospital said the MP died of over bleeding and multiple stabs.
The prosecutor said Dainel sent the phone which had passwords on it for decoding but the person saw blood stains and some pictures on it and became suspicions.
Ms Obuobisa indicated the repairer realized that the pictures on the phone were identical to those that accompanied news of the death of MP.
She said fingerprints marks lifted from the crime scene were identical to that of Daniel while DNA analysis on the blood also matched that of the accused.
Denials
Sexy Don Don spent over an hour vehemently denying the entire averments of the prosecution, insisting that he did not kill the MP.
He stated, among others, that the caution statement from the police was not the true reflection of what he told the police upon his arrest.
Sexy Don Don claims that the phones of the deceased were only shown to him at the Central Police Station where he had gone to lodge a complaint in another case.
He said the supposed GH¢2,000 believed to have been given to him as his part of the money from the contract for the murder of the MP was his business capital.
The judge, upon questioning, identified a lot of loopholes in his long narration to the court.
He wondered whether the seven caution statements taken from him by the police were inconsistent with what he told the police.
Daniel claimed Junior Agogo was only brought to him in the court as his accomplice in the crime.
The accused denied telling the police that MP’s security knew something about the case.
But the judge said there are many inconsistencies in the accused person’s testimony before the court.
The judge asked him whether he did not tell the police that he was contracted by an NDC female MP to kill the MP for GH¢2,000.
Mr. Owusu noted that Daniel had a case to answer for which reason he committed him to the high court for trial.
In the case of Junior Agogo, the court held that there were no inconsistencies between his testimony and the statement he gave to the police upon his arrest.
Junior Agogo said he did not enter the house of the MP with the accused.
Exhibits
Meanwhile, the State has compiled a long list of exhibits to establish its case against the accused persons.
They include the post-mortem report of the deceased dated February 12, 2016, forensic DNA report dated April 12, 2016, blood stained T-shirt of Daniel, a catapult, knife, 3 iphones, among others.
Nana Obiri Boahen, a Deputy General Secretary of the NPP, who sat through the proceedings, said the case was of utmost interest to the state and the party.
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