Murder suspect arrested

Story: Albert K. Salia
TWO years after a love relation had turned sour and resulted in the gruesome murder of a man with the alleged connivance of his wife, the police are closing in on the perpetrators.
So far, five of the perpetrators have been arrested, the latest of whom was arrested by the police at the weekend from his hideout at Somanya in the Eastern Region.
Kofi Gumego, the suspect, had been in hiding since the murder of Stanilus Noah Tetteh at dawn of May 30, 2005.
The only person yet to be arrested is Stella Tetteh-Teikunor, wife of the deceased, who absconded after her alleged involvement was disclosed by one of the suspects.
Those arrested are Dade Wayo, Yao Davordzi alias Alhaji, Gabriel Obo Kudjo and Ahia Gumego, currently on bail.
A source close to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service told the Daily Graphic yesterday that the arrest of Gumego should send a signal to Stella and all other criminals that they could run but could not hide from the law no matter how long it would take.
Recalling the incident, the source said Stella made a report to the Kwabenya Police at about 4 a.m. on May 30, 2005 that some men broke into her house at about 2 a.m. and attacked them.
It said Stella claimed she could not find her husband after the attack.
The source said a police team went to her house and detected that the main door had not been tampered with although the door to the master bedroom had been broken into.
It said the deceased was found lying in a prone position in front of his bed in a pool of blood and had multiple wounds on his face and at the back of his head.
According to the source, a man identified only as Michael, who lived with the couple, told the police team that he (Michael) opened the door to let in the deceased who had returned home at about 10 p.m. on May 29, 2005.
It said a few minutes later, Stella also came home after which he (Michael) locked the main gate and the main door to the house.
It said Michael said he later heard Stella knocking on the door to the bedroom but the deceased did not open it, resulting in Stella telling the deceased that she was going to sleep in the hall.
Michael, the police said, claimed he heard Stella scream and then later the deceased shouted “who was that” and then a bang on a door.
According to the source, Michael said a man entered his room to attack him but after a struggle the attacker escaped.
It said Michael said he later came out of the room to see the main door ajar and scaled the wall to a house two doors away from the deceased’s residence to call a police patrol team.
The source said when the police probed Stella further, she then said the attackers had tied her hands and asked her to lead them to her husband’s room where she saw the men kill him.
It said Stella further alleged that the attackers also ransacked her husband’s car before leaving after which she boarded a car to the police station to lodge a complaint.
The police said a brother of the deceased, Mr Adam Tetteh, told the police that the deceased had told him that he had on some months earlier received an anonymous call and the caller had told him (deceased) that Stella had hired their services at a cost of $9,000 to kill him.
According to the police, when Stella was confronted by the deceased and his brother, she admitted taking $9,000 from her husband but denied that it was meant to pay the services of people hired to kill him.
The source said Stella reportedly returned the money to the deceased after that confrontation.
It said the relationship between the couple became strained thereafter.
It said further investigations revealed that between March and April 2005, Stella allegedly sought the assistance of Ahia Gumego, a fetish priest at Agyekpo-Somanya, to use his spiritual powers to kill the deceased.
The source said Stella later approached Ahia Gumego to resort to physical means to kill the deceased, since the spiritual means was delaying and allegedly promised to pay him GH¢5,000 (¢50 million).
It said Ahia later recruited the suspects including his brother, Kofi Gumego, to execute the job.
The police said the suspects went to New Ashongman on board a Tico taxi and parked a few metres away from the deceased’s house.
According to the police, Gabriel and the taxi driver were left behind in the taxi while the rest scaled the wall of the deceased’s house, murdered him and took some of his personal belongings away.
“It was at this stage that Stella, in order to cover her involvement, feigned injury and went to lodge a complaint with the Kwabenya police,” it added.
The source said the autopsy report indicated that the deceased died from depressed fractures of skull and sharp object head injuries.