Two remanded over murder of Hot fm Finance Manager

Two persons allegedly involved in the murder of the Nana Ndoli Panin III, Baamuhene of Enchi Kramokrom and Finance Manager of Hotfm, have been remanded into Police custody by a Kaneshie District Court.

Kwame Ofori aka Ogyaba, a 29 year old pastor of Divine Prayer Camp at Saapeman and Nana Kwame Kwakye, a 64 year old spiritualist of Asuboi in the Eastern Region, have been charged with conspiracy to commit to murder and murder.

The court presided over by Mrs. Ama Adomako Kwakye preserved their pleas and remanded them into reappear on October 21.

This was after the Prosecuting Inspector John Baidoo, opposed to the bail, saying “the grant of bail by the court was premature.”

According to Inspector Baidoo, the accused persons were only arrested on October 3, this year by the Police and because the Police did not want to breach the 48 hour constitutional rule, arraigned them.

This, prosecution said, was to enable the Police do proper investigations.

According to Inspector Baidoo, accused persons were being held for murder and that, murder constituted a first degree felony and when found culpable, they could be imprisoned for life.

Inspector Baidoo informed the court that Kwakye on the day of arrest, took to his heels and he was given a hot and apprehended.

Accused persons respective lawyers took turns to argue for bail for their clients.

Mr. Samuel Quanah Ansah, who represented Ofori, prayed the court to admit his client to bail because prosecution had not told the court about the presence of Ofori at the crime scene and that prosecution had also not told the court how the deceased lost his life.

Mr. Ansah noted that there would be sufficient connection if the facts suggested that on the day of the incident, Ofori participated in the said “purification” and in the presence of the accused person, Nana Ndoli lost his life.

“We are being invited to into the realm of spirituality and this court has no jurisdiction in the spiritual realm. This is clear that the Police are on a wild goose chase,” counsel added.

According to defense counsel, it was surprising that the complainant who found the deceased in a pool of blood did not indicate that the accused persons allegedly booked Room 16 of the hotel room to participate in the purification ritual. Counsel contended that Ofori is a Panelist with Hot Fm, and was married with four kids, had a fixed place of abode and he would not abscond from the jurisdiction.

Counsel further held that the facts did not in any way support the charges.

In the case of Kwakye’s lawyer, Mr. J.K. Yeboah recounted that prosecution had failed to inform the court that it was the accused persons who booked the hotel room.

According to Mr. Yeboah, Kwakye apart from being a spiritualist was also a musician and on the day of the incident, he was with his sound engineer in a studio working on a song.

Counsel said Kwakye left the studio at 10:00pm to his home at Asuboi. Mr. Yeboah said the charges preferred against his client was “scandalous” to his status.

The case of prosecution is that the complainant Daniel Abeka is the assistant manager of Bobson Hotel, Kaneshie, Accra.

Prosecution said the deceased is a 45 year old finance manager at Hotfm in Accra and also chief of Enchi.

On October 1, this year, prosecution said at about 1300hours, the deceased who is known in private life at Peter Kwabena Antwi allegedly received a phone call from his spiritual father to meet him at Bobson Hotel at Kaneshie.

Prosecution said as a result, deceased drove his Toyota Rav 4 with registration number GE 1730-09 from the office to Takoradi Lorry station. Prosecution said he parked the vehicle and walked to the hotel Room 16 to meet his spiritual father.

According to prosecution, on October 2, this year, at 1905 hours, the complainant found the body of the deceased lying in a pool of blood on a bed in Room 16 which was already booked down for Antwi to undertake some purification rituals.

Following the discovery of the body, Prosecution said Police investigations led to the arrest of the accused persons, who for some time now, had been preparing purification rituals for the deceased.

Source: GNA