Yesterday, Sunday January 12, 2024 was exactly six years when Mrs Josephine Tandoh-Asante was murdered in cold blood in her Emefs Hillview Estates, near Afienya, in the Ningo Prampram Municipality of the Greater Accra Region.
On Saturday January 12, 2019 Mrs Josephine Tandoh-Asante, then Marketing and Public Affairs Manager at the Tema Port of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) attended an end of year get-together for the Senior Staff held at GPHA TOWERS. She returned home in the early hours of Sunday January 13, 2019.
Later that morning, she was found murdered in her bedroom. The houseboy, Christian Agyei and her official driver, Amos Apeku, were arrested and put before the Tema District Court.
Investigations which started from the Emefs Police Station was taken over by the Tema Regional Criminal Investigation Department (RCID), later to the Homicide Unit of the CID Headquarters, before landing finally at the Cold Case Unit (CCU) at the same headquarters.
On January 26, 2023 the Attorney General’s Office advised that the two suspects be discharged, and immediately detectives from the CCU who were present rearrested them, to assist with the ongoing investigation.
On March 30, 2023 suspect Richard Kwabena Kwakye, aka Kwabena Boateng, former driver at GPHA was arrested, followed by Dominic Owusu, also a driver, on April 13, 2023.
Another suspect, Frederick Oppong Owusu, also a driver, was nabbed.
Meanwhile the Accra High Court, presided over by Justice Marie Louise Simmons, has granted bail to Richard Kwabena Kwakye, also known as Kwabena Boateng, pending trial.
Kwabena Kwakye is to post bail in the sum of GH¢800,000.00 with two sureties, one of whom must justify their status with landed property.
The court’s Registrar, Nana Ama Dankwa-Smith, has been tasked with verifying the authenticity of all land documents submitted, to satisfy the bail conditions with the relevant land institutions.
The decision follows an affidavit filed on August 29, 2024 by Dennis Myers Pappoe, which was reviewed alongside submissions from Kwakye’s Counsel, Godfred Anim Nyarko and David Beecham, who represented the Republic.
In addition to the bail conditions, the court directed the case Investigator to take a mug portrait of Kwakye, capturing three frontal, left-side and right-side views. These photographs, properly labeled and signed, will serve as a safeguard against potential bail-jumping and may be used to declare the accused wanted in the media, if necessary.
Sureties are also required to bear the cost of the photographs, submit copies of their Ghana Cards, and undergo residence inspections by the case investigator. The Registrar must ensure all bail bond documentation, including the photographs, are forwarded to the police docket.
The court further ordered Kwakye to report to the case investigator or the Unit Head of the Cold Case Unit of the Ghana Police Service every two weeks until the case is resolved or he is discharged.
