Nicholas Kini and Felix Nyarko
The police have been able to ascertain the ages of the two teenagers involved in the gruesome murder of an 11-year-old boy at Kasoa in the Central Region, ostensibly for money ritual.
Schools Search
When the case was called at the Kasoa District Court yesterday, Chief Inspector Ernest Agbo told the court that the police went to the schools of the suspects and got the ages their parents entered for them on admission.
He said the first accused person, Felix Nyarko, aka Yaw Anane, per the school’s records was born on September 1, 2005, while the date of birth of his co-accused Nicholas Kwame Kini, was recorded as August 2, 2002.
The September 2005 date makes Nyarko 16 years and still a juvenile under the law.
Adults’ Court
However, in the case of Kini, he has been found to be 19 years per the records in his school, and is fit to stand trial in adults’ court.
The prosecutor then told the court that the docket has been sent to the Attorney General’s Department for advice.
At the last adjourned date, there was no legal representation for the two suspects and the court presided over by Samuel Akwasi Agyei then asked a counsel who had come to court for a different case, to stand in for them.
The lawyer, Samuel Atuah, who was present yesterday, told the court that he had no objection to the request by the police to send the docket to the AG for advice.
The case was subsequently adjourned until May 19.
Intriguing Details
The gruesome murder of 11-year-old Ishmael Mensah Abdallah stunned the nation when graphic pictures of the deceased in the midst of an angry crowd being prevented by the police from lynching the teenagers went viral on social media and on mainstream television.
TV Programmes
Nyarko is said to have been enthralled by television commercials about spiritualists who could make people instant billionaires.
He narrated the story to his friend Kini, who recommended a spiritualist who could be valuable in that regard.
Not having a mobile phone himself, Kini provided the contact number of the spiritualist and Nyarko went ahead to use his mother’s phone to contact the spiritualist.
Spiritualist’s Demands
The spiritualist allegedly demanded a human being and an amount of GH¢5,000 for the spiritual procedure to make them instant billionaires.
The Easter holidays was the time the duo settled on Ishmael Mensah Abdallah, as the person to be used for the ritual.
Kini went to hide in an uncompleted building near Nyarko’s house for the planned ‘operation’ and the two armed themselves with a club and cement block.
Nyarko, who is a buddy of Ishmael Mensah Abdallah, made contact with him and convinced him to turn up at the uncompleted building where the second accused person had a video game for sale.
Initial Plans
The initial plan of the accused was to kidnap the deceased and demand a ransom of GH¢5,000 after which they would move him to the fetish priest upon receipt of the said amount.
The initial plan did not make sense and informed their decision on the murder option, which they duly carried out using the club and cement block.
How They Killed
When Ishmael Mensah Abdallah showed up, Nicholas Kini, the second accused, used the club to hit his neck from the back.
Felix Nyarko, the first accused, followed up with a killer hit using the cement block on the head of the boy, killing him instantly.
The first accused person’s sister was said to have heard something unusual and decided to walk towards the source of the unusual noise.
She was turned away by her brother who did not want her to see what was happening.
After The Killing
The accused persons, after the act, buried the deceased awaiting nightfall so they could convey the body to the spiritualist.
Unfortunately for them, the first accused person’s sister, who was turned away earlier, reported to her father, Mr. Nyarko, that something unusual had taken place in the uncompleted building.
Mr. Nyarko, who is a stepfather to the first accused person, proceeded to the uncompleted building and discovered that the location had been interfered with.
Mr. Nyarko subsequently reported the case to the police who arrested the two teenagers.
Fetish Priestess
In the ensuing heat, the police swooped on the fetish priestess, whose television advertisement allegedly ‘influenced’ the two Kasoa teenagers to take the life of Ishmael Mensah Abdallah.
Charity Mensah, who was arrested by the police at her shrine near Amanase in the Ayensuano District in the Eastern Region and later granted bail, admitted that the suspects contacted their shrine to undergo money rituals that would make them instant billionaires.
She told police interrogators that the teenagers called her on phone to make enquiries about a product they have been advertising called “Pocket no dry”, which is a charm supposedly making people perpetually wealthy.