In a mini-trial to contest the originality of his cautioned statement to the police, Sexy Don-Don, alleged killer of Joseph Boakye Danquah Adu, a Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa North, says he now comes under the name Daniel Asiedu Mohammed Ali.
In affirmation of his faith, Sexy Don-Don requested and swore on the Holy Quran when he mounted the witness box at an Accra High Court.
Interestingly, when led by his counsel, Daniel Yaw Danquah, to give his evidence-in-chief in the mini trial and asked to give his full name to the court, the accused only mentioned Daniel Asiedu.
Daniel Asiedu aka Sexy Don-Don has been accused of the murder of the MP, Joseph Boakye Danquah Adu, also known as JB, in 2016.
Sexy Don-Don denies authenticity of his caution statement to the police, hence the mini-trial.
According to him, the cautioned statement was forcibly obtained by the former Director-General of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Maame Tiwaa Addo-Danquah in her office.
He told the court that he was forced to thumbprint the cautioned statement under duress.
The accused claimed that an officer at the CID office by name Nkrumah held his hand to sign and thumbprint those exhibits before the court.
Excerpts of the cross-examination
Q. Yesterday, you told this court that you were warned by Tiwaa that whatever they asked you to do and she also asked you to do, whatever Nkrumah asked you to do, do it.
Yesterday, you also told this court that they brought a document that you don’t know what it is, and you don’t know the content, for you to thumbprint, and your hand was forced to thumbprint the document, and Mr. Nkrumah also held your hand to sign the document.
I want to show you some documents, which the police said are your caution and charges statement, which has your thumbprint and your signature. Now, tell the court if they are your signature, thumbprint, and how they came about on the documents.
I’m showing you Exhibit B. There is a signature and thumbprint, and the police said it is your thumbprint and signature, and you have both voluntarily. What do you have to tell the court?
A. Please, I want to repeat all that I said yesterday. This paper was the one I was forcefully made to sign and thumbprint – that I was forced to sign and thumbprint some documents. Exhibit B is one of the documents I was forced to sign and thumbprint
Q. Is it your case that the thumbprint on Exhibit B was not voluntarily?
A. I did not [it] thumbprint voluntarily.
Q. And it is also your case that the signature was not given voluntarily?
A. I have never signed in my entire life before, and I have also not been to school; and I only thumbprint documents. It was Nkrumah who held my hand with [a] pen to forcefully sign.
Q. Take a look at the rest of the Exhibits C and D series and tell this court if they are what look like signatures and thumbprint on that?
A. Yes.
Q. The police are saying that these are documents you voluntarily thumbprint and signed?
A. The police forced me to sign and thumbprint more than 5 or 6 documents, and anytime I refused to do so, they gave me severe beatings.
Q. Is it your case that all the thumbprints on Exhibits C and D series, you did not sign voluntarily?
A. It is out of severe beatings I thumbprint.
Q. Is it also your case that the signatures on Exhibit C and D series, you did not signed voluntarily?
A. I have never been to school before; I do not know how to sign; it was Mr. Nkrumah who held by hand with the pen and signed the document.
Q. Apart from the thumbprints and signatures, the police, through the prosecution, have told this court that there was an independent witness who was present at all times when your statements were being taken?
A. It baffles my mind, because at all times that they brought the documents for me to thumbprint and sign it was only me, Nkrumah and Tiwaa Danquah who were present at Tiwaa Danquah’s office. I cannot tell if Mr. Nkrumah was the independent witness or Madam Tiwaa Danquah.
Q. You were in this court room when [the] prosecution called a witness to come and testify sitting in the same chair as you are sitting in, who claimed to be an independent witness, who also claimed to be present most of the time the exhibits that have been tendered were taken. That he was present when those statements were taken from you. What do you say to that?
A. I remember one day I was brought to court and an old man whom I have never seen at Madam Tiwaa’s office before was also in court that day who I have never seen before.
My lawyer approached the old man who claimed to be an independent witness on the day my statement was taken. He was asked to read the said statement, but I did not hear him read the said statement.
Q. There was one Seth Nyarko, who claimed in this court that all the statements that Nkrumah took from you, he was present, and even the days that he was off and was not working.
He received a phone call to come in to be your independent witness. What do you have to say to that?
Prosecution: Objection on the second part of the question.
Court: Objection overruled.
A. I have never seen Seth Nyarko before until the day he came to court to claim that he was an independent witness at the time my statement was taken.
Q. This Seth Nyarko said that anytime he was present, you were well looked after, not beaten nor threatened; you were not promised anything; in fact, let me use his actual words, he said, you were not forced, you were not in fear, nor were you promoter intimidated. What do you say to that?
A. That’s not true. As at the time I was… Since my arrest by the police, I have never been free. I have always been in handcuffs. It is in this court that my hands are free, apart from that anywhere I go I’m in handcuffs.
Q. There is one investigator, Awuni, who also said he took a statement from you willingly, and you were not forced?
A. I do not know any Awuni; I have never heard of his name before until today when my lawyer mentioned his name. The only person I have known aside Madam Tiwaa is Mr. Nkrumah.
Q. Now, Mr. Awuni told this court that he took your statement at the Regional Police Headquarters, Accra, before you were handed over to the Police Headquarters, and when he took the statement from you, there was an independent witness who has died since?
A. Because what he said it was not true that is why things have turned out this way. What I know is that I was forced to thumbprint at Madam Tiwaa’s office.
Q. Is it your case that your statement was never taken by Awuni, who was based at the Accra Regional Headquarters with any independent witness present?
A. That’s so.
Counsel: That ends our evidence.
Cross-examination by the prosecution
Q. Where do you come from?
A. I come from Larteh Kubeashi.
To be continued.
