A DNA consultant has been discharged by an Accra High Court following the conclusion of cross-examination by lawyers for the two persons standing trial for the murder of the late Member of Parliament for Abuakwa North, J.B Danquah-Adu.
The consultant, Dr. Kenneth Frimpong, had tended in evidence a forensic report on a DNA test he conducted on a number of items presented to him by the Ghana Police Service.
His report had indicated that one of the items; a boxer shots, belonged to Daniel Asiedu, who is accused of killing the MP in cold blood.
Lawyers for the accused person, during his cross-examination, tried to discredit the authenticity of the forensic resort, with Yaw Dankwa, counsel for Daniel Asiedu, indicating that the report cannot be relied upon.
He accused the consultant, who is the prosecution’s seventh witness, of not authoring the report but only putting his name and seal on it.
The lawyer averred that the DNA consultant’s report was full of theories, and no substance, hence the witness could not speak to it.
Dr. Frimpong, however, disagreed with the lawyer, and stood his ground that the DNA report is authentic and reliable, adding that his work is at par with such facilities in South Africa and in the United Kingdom.
The court, presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, discharged the witness after the conclusion of cross-examination, and ordered the prosecution to call its eighth witness at the next sitting on May 16, 2022.
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 two, according to prosecution documents between February 8 and 9, 2016, planned to go on a robbery spree, armed with a screw driver, a pair of scissors, a sharp knife, a catapult and other weapons.
It said an ensuing misunderstanding led the two to part ways, and while Vincent went home, Asiedu continued scouting the East Legon area and ended up in the deceased’s house.
The brief facts state that Daniel found a ladder in the house and used it to climb into the late MP’s bedroom through the window and began ransacking the room.
The late JB Danquah-Adu was woken by the noise and he struggled with the suspect who stabbed him several times in the neck and chest till he collapsed and died.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak