The deceased
The police in the Eastern Region have denied media reports that some vital parts of the body of Prince Kwabena Kumi, the airline engineer who died in a bizarre circumstance, are missing.
According to the Oda District Police Commander, Supt. Samuel Ntoso, preliminary investigations do not support claims of ritual murder in the case.
A preliminary autopsy report has indicated severe jaw and chest injuries and hemorrhagic shock as a result of gunshot at intermediate range.
The 35-year-old China trained aeronautic engineer, whose body was found near his hometown at Akim Asuboa, has sparked public outrage and since then, there have been all sorts of interpretations but the circumstances surrounding the death are yet to be unraveled.
According to the police, on 3rd March, 2018, one Nana Nkrumah Kumi, a resident of the town, reported that a search party organized by the residents had found the body of Mr. Prince Kumi in a farm, about two kilometres from the township.
The report said it was a farmer who had spotted the body on his way to his farm and raised the alarm.
According to the report, the body was lying in a supine position with the lower jaw broken.
It added that the two eyes and tongue were also protruding with the body in an advanced stage of decomposition, suggesting a foul play.
Superintendent Samuel Ntoso said, “The police in the company of some family members, took the body to the Oda Government Hospital mortuary and examined it before moving it to the Police Hospital for postmortem,” insisting that “no part of his body had been removed.”
Mr. Prince Kwabena Kumi, who was working with Africa World Airlines, went missing during the Easter holidays after he had told his friends in Accra that he was going to visit his mother at Asuboa.
The police later confirmed that the car he was using had been detained at the Akyem Akroso police station – which is about 18 miles to Asuboa – because Mr. Kumi, who was driving it, was found to be drunk.
Bizarrely, the police could not detain him after finding him drunk and driving at the same time but rather left him off the hook only to discover his dead body later.
Family Version
According to the family, there were marks of assault on the body at the time of discovery and Felicia Adu, an aunt of the deceased who narrated the incident to the media, claimed that they later found Mr. Kumi’s car parked at the police station looking washed-up.
Cousin of the deceased, Abena Osei Debrah, also said, “My cousin was prevented three times from boarding a commercial vehicle to his destination by the police…..”
Another family member called Kwami Kumi said, “We saw the car of my cousin at the Akroso police station. They seized the car with the reason that he was drunk. We searched for him and found him killed on the road from the same police station. His phone was still in the car. If you check the vehicle now, it’s been washed and does not look like a traveling vehicle. ”
The family has said that it would take legal action if the police did not offer tangible explanation of the death.
FROM Daniel Bampoe, Koforidua