Michael Darko, Christopher Ekow Clarke Quansah, Jonathan Obeng
CHRISTOPHER EKOW Clarke Quansah, the first accused person in the murder of Georgina Asor Botchwey at Mankessim in the Central Region, has pleaded with the Cape Coast District Court ‘2’ to free the third accused person, Jonathan Obeng.
According to the chief, Obeng, aged 26, is innocent as he did not know anything about the conspiracy to kill Georgina Asor Botchwey.
The 65-year-old chief said this when he and his conspirator, Michael Darko, 48, a self-styled pastor, appeared before the court yesterday.
They were all remanded into custody to reappear on October 18, 2022.
The third accused person, Jonathan Obeng, 26-year-old mason and brother-in-law of suspect Ekow Quansah, was allegedly hired by the two to dig the pit in which Georgina was buried in the chief’s house.
He made his first appearance in court yesterday, having been charged with conspiracy to commit murder and murder, contrary to section 46 of the Criminal and Other Offences Act, 1980, Act 29.
The court, presided over by Bernice Mensima Ackon, did not take their pleas.
This was after the prosecutor, DSP Daniel Gadzo, pleaded with the court to allow the prosecution more time to conclude investigations.
Georgina was allegedly murdered when she arrived in Cape Coast on September 8, 2022 and taken to the chief’s house by suspect Michael Darko, who was her sister’s boyfriend.
On September 9, 2022, at about mid-day, the chief and Michael Darko met to hatch a plan to kill Georgina for money rituals, the prosecutor said.
The chief initially took her to Acquakrom, where they dispossessed the victim of her iPhone and locked her in a room.
The accused persons went to Asikafo Ambantem, a suburb of Mankessim, where a pit was dug in an uncompleted storey building belonging to the chief.
They went back for the deceased and sent her to Asikafo Ambantem, where she was hit with a club by the chief.
The self-styled pastor was said to have held her neck while she was unconscious till she died. The suspects took her hair before burying the body in the pit in the uncompleted storey building around 2am.
Later, a complaint was lodged with the police by the brother of the deceased, one Alfred Duodu.
The police picked intelligence and started looking for the accused persons and, on September 19, 2022, Michael Darko was arrested at Anomabo and confessed to the crime.
He subsequently led the police to where Georgina was buried.
The police later exhumed the body and deposited it at a morgue, while investigations led to the arrest of the Tufuhene of Ekumfi Acquakrom at his hideout at Ekumfi Acquakrom.
He also confessed to the crime and stated that they killed Georgina for money rituals.
Meanwhile, police investigation has also established that first and second accused persons killed three other persons, bringing to four the number of persons murdered in cold blood by the suspects.
There was spectacle at the court when some persons believed to be relatives of the deceased thronged the court’s premises to hurl insults and hoot at them when they were being escorted back into police custody.
FROM Emmanuel Opoku, Cape Coast