The late JB Danquah-Adu
“I am further putting it to you that the killing of this innocent man was not committed on chance but was done in a well-orchestrated manner and that your attempt to take yourself off the crime has failed because you cannot give a proper account of where you were during the time of the killing of JB Danquah-Adu.”
Those were the words of Yaw Dankwa, counsel for Daniel Asiedu aka Sexy Don Don and Vincent Bosso during the cross examination of Samuel Berko Sakodie, in the murder trial of Abuakwa North NPP MP, JB Danwuah-Adu.
The lawyer during the cross-examination of the witness sought to suggest that his clients are and given the circumstances of the murder, the witness who was the driver of the deceased had a hand in the heinous crime.
But the witness swiftly parried the suggestion, stating that “I cannot tell if it was planned, that I do not have knowledge of. It sounds like story telling – ‘Ananse nsem bi’. It is not true.”
The lawyers also suggested to the witness that “you and other people whom you know that knows the house well committed that heinous crime”’ but the witness denied it, saying “that is not true.”
Daniel Asiedu and Vincent Boso are before the court facing a charge of conspiracy to commit robbery while Asiedu is facing another charge of murder.
The prosecution’s first witness, Samuel Berko Sakodie who was the deceased’s driver appeared before the court last Monday to give accounts of his last moments with the MP before his gruesome murder.
But the defense lawyer is now blaming the witness as well as other workers in the home of the deceased as being responsible for the crime.
Yaw Dankwa apart from attacking the credibility of the witness’ evidence suggested that Daniel Asiedu’s stature does not favour him to win a struggle with the deceased.
He also went on to suggest that the witness who is 1.79 metres tall can in general terms fight the deceased and overpower him.
“I am putting it to you that the stature of JB Danquah is such that A1 (Daniel Asiedu) cannot overpower him in a struggle”, the lawyer fired, but the witness rebutted, saying “With this I would want to say something, even in the bible David overpowered Goliath so his size doesn’t matter.”
“You will agree with me that a person of your size and yourself in general can fight a person like JB”, the lawyer further pushed and the witness replied that “I cannot fight with my boss, the person who pays my salary.”
Mr. Dankwa also went to suggest that a complete stranger could not have known of the presence of a ladder in the house which was allegedly used to scale the wall into the home of the late MP but the witness said he could not tell.
Give-and-Take
Lawyer: For a person to enter the bedroom of the deceased from outside in that timely manner, he or she must be someone who knows the house very well
Witness: I cannot tell
Lawyer: I am putting it to you for a person to enter the house and commit the crime it must be someone who knows the house.
Witness: As I said I cannot tell
Lawyer: You are one of the persons who knows the house very well since you have worked for four years, you know where his room is and where he stands on the balcony to throw you the keys so I am putting it to you that you can commit the crime
Witness: This matter is very funny but I never said I know the house very well. I have never entered the house or room. If you take me to the house and tell me to take you to his room I cannot tell where to even go. The place he stands to throw the keys from, if it is his hall or bedroom, I have no idea. There was something I left out in my earlier submission, sometimes the key is brought to me by Jennifer.
The court presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo discharged the witness and adjourned the matter to May 4 for the prosecution led by Sefakor Batse, a Principal State Attorney to call its second witness.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak