A man believed to be the main suspect behind the shooting of the Chief of Chinto, near Nsawam in the Eastern Region, in March this year has been arrested by the police.
The suspect, Charles Donkor, alias Killer, is alleged to be the hit man who was contracted to kill the chief to pave the way for the enstoolment of a new chief.
Nana Okotoako Kofi Mankata II, 54, and his driver, Nana Kwame, 38, were gunned down at the entrance of the chief’s residence at Adoagyiri, near Nsawam, on the night of Saturday, March 26, 2015.
The chief and his driver were returning home after attending a funeral when the said unknown assailants on an unregistered motorbike shot them.
Land guards
Briefing journalists, the Accra Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mr Christian Tetteh Yohonu, said after over a month of hunting for the main killer of the chief, the Amasaman Police, on Thursday, April 30, 2015, apprehended the suspect among a group of land guards at Akramah.
According to him, the police retrieved a pistol and 13 rounds of live ammunition after the arrest of the suspect.
He said the case would be forwarded to the Homicide Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service for further investigations.
Chieftaincy dispute
Following the murder of the chief, some residents of the area linked the death to a protracted chieftaincy dispute in Chinto.
It was said the marksmen on the motorbike shot the chief and his driver and bolted, leaving the bodies of the two in a puddle of blood.
The Nsawam Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Akwasi Kankam Boadu, said the police received a distress call about 9:30 p.m. that Saturday and immediately dispatched officers to the scene.
The bodies of the two were taken to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for autopsy and preservation.
Three persons arrested
Following the murder of the chief and his driver, the police arrested three persons in connection with the incident.
The three were identified as Nana Fianko III, 29, a farmer and nephew of Nana Mankata; Abusuapanin Joseph Kwabena Opare, 47, a farmer, and Nii Odarlai Quarshie, 49, a businessman.
Nana Mankata is alleged to have been destooled by a judicial committee of the traditional council, headed by the Aburihene, Otobour Djan Kwasi II, in 2010 on the grounds of disrespect and violent harassment of his subjects.
When the three suspects were put before a magistrate court, Chief Inspector Isaac Agbemehia told the court that police investigations had revealed that the three had hatched a plot to kill the chief in Nii Quarshie’s office at Achimota.
He said the late chief had been installed in 2005 but on December 19, 2013, Abusuapanin Opare and others enstooled Nana Fianko III as a rival chief.
Since then, he said, the accused persons had been organising thugs to harass the late chief and threatened him anytime he acted in his capacity as the chief of Chinto.
Sensing danger, he said, Nana Mankata relocated from Chinto and rented an apartment at Adoagyiri and only visited Chinto occasionally.
In September 2014, Nana Mankata was said to have reported to the Nsawam Police that Nana Fianko had threatened to kill him.
On September 3, 2014, Nana Mankata petitioned the Director-General of the CID on the threat on his life by Nana Fianko.
Three months later, Nana Fianko and Abusuapanin Opare led a gang armed with weapons to ransack Nana Mankata’s house when news spread that Nana Mankata was installing a family head at Chinto.
One of the gang members was arrested but he was granted bail by a court a month later when he appeared before it.
<<Print>>