The late JB Danquah
The night security man of the murdered JB Danquah-Adu, the then Member of Parliament of Abuakwa North, Eastern Region, yesterday appeared before an Accra High Court and narrated the manner in which he and some police officers found the lifeless body of the deceased.
Stephen Apreko Mensah, who said he had been working for the late MP for 13 years until the gruesome murder, told the court that the deceased’s body was found lying on his back in a pool of blood beside his bed when he and a police officer entered his room.
Led in evidence by Sefakor Batse, a Principal State Attorney, the gateman narrated the events of the night of February 8, 2006 right up to the time the body of the deceased was discovered.
He also told the court that prior to entering the room of the deceased, they had seen someone’s footprints covered in blood from the deceased’s room to another room.
Daniel Asiedu, aka Sexy Don Don, and Vincent Bosso are standing trial, charged of murder of the MP and conspiracy to commit murder respectively.
The witness, who is the second prosecution witness, during his testimony, told the court that on February 8, 2016 between 11:30pm and 12am, he was at post when the MP and his driver drove in.
He said the late MP and his driver alighted from the car and the driver handed the keys over to the deceased and he later went home while the deceased also entered his room and locked the door.
He said he locked the main gate and went to sit at the side of the house leading to the boy’s quarters as he could not go to the security room because the gardener was sleeping there.
He told the court that he slept off while sitting at the side of the house but later woke up and decided to walk around to avoid sleeping again.
“While walking, I saw that a ladder had been placed in front of the house leading to where JB Danquah-Adu sleeps. When I saw the ladder I panicked because that was not where it was supposed to be. The ladder is normally placed by the generator at the back of the house. I went to call the gardener who was sleeping in the security room. I opened the gate because I needed more help so I went to the next house to call the security man – Abraham to come and help. Because Abraham had lived at Shiashie for long he started calling friends on his phone to come and help because we did not know who was in the room even though we did not see anybody. It was the positioning of the ladder that made me realise that something was going on because that was not where we usually placed it,” Mr. Mensah narrated.
He continued that he used the gardener’s phone to call the police hotline 191 and three police officers came around and asked them to call the deceased’s mobile phone.
“We used the gardener’s phone to call him and someone answered the call but did not say anything and ended the call. We called again but nobody answered. We called for the third time but the phone was turned off,” Mr. Mensah added.
Mr. Mensah narrated that the police then asked him to call the deceased’s wife on phone and when she answered, the witness told her that someone had placed a ladder in front of the house leading to the deceased’s sleeping place and he has called the police who are in the house.
He continued that he together with the police entered the hall to the room through the kitchen and “one of the police entered the deceased’s room and called me to come and when I entered the room I saw JB Danquah-Adu lying flat on his back in a pool of blood beside his bed. The policeman then asked me to shake him and as I was about to shake him I saw a red scarf popularly called Bandana and the policeman asked me to use it to shake the deceased which I did. The MP did not speak and could not move. The police man then asked that we go out of the room and he locked the door.”
“The wife, Ivy, came out of a room closer to the deceased’s room on the same floor and asked what was going on and the police officer said it was nothing and asked her to go inside and lock the door,” he continued.
He said an ambulance came close to morning to pick the body of the MP while he, together with other workers in the house, were taken to Accra Central Police Station where they were made to write statements.
Hearing continues on May 10.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak