Monday, May 23, 2016

BNI DENIES COVER-UP IN JB's MURDER

By William Yaw Owusu
Monday, May 23, 2016

The Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) says media reports suggesting that it was covering up facts on the gruesome murder of Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa North in the Eastern Region, are false.

According to the security agents, they were rather helping to unravel the circumstances leading to the death of the MP.

A few days after the police had arrested Daniel Asiedu aka Sexy Don Don, the first suspect in connection with the killing of the MP (popularly called JB), the BNI took him into its custody and appeared to have taken over the case for further investigations.

But instead of going further with the case, the suspect’s statement to the police rather changed and the BNI was said to have kept him in solitary confinement.

Thumb-Printed Statement
Before he left the custody of the police to the BNI, Asiedu thumb-printed a statement making mind-blowing revelations about how he, together with two others, in connivance with JB’s security man, allegedly killed the MP.

He even mentioned the amount paid him by his ‘recruiter(s)’ as GH¢2,000 as well as the persons he supposedly committed the gruesome act with, and the role allegedly played by an unnamed MP belonging to a certain political grouping.

JB’s security man was said to be part of the plot, according to Asiedu, even though the man claimed he did not know when the assailants entered the house, suggesting that he was sleeping when they attacked his boss.

BNI Custody
However, when the BNI took over the case for further interrogation, Asiedu was said to have made a sudden u-turn, allegedly changing his thumb-printed statement by claiming that he had gone to the late JB’s house to rob and not to kill him.

Asiedu had allegedly told a team of BNI investigators that he went into the house to rob and that while removing a television set from the wall, the MP, who was then not asleep, tried to capture him by holding his neck and that out of fear, he stabbed him (MP) in the abdomen and the ribs before escaping.

Major U-turn
A police source told DAILY GUIDE last week that Asiedu was then reportedly insisting that the statement he gave to the police on February 11 - two days after the MP was killed at his Shiashie residence, East Legon, Accra - should be taken as the true reflection of what happened.

BNI Denial
Some concerned Ghanaians, as a result, raised eyebrows at the level of investigation conducted by the BNI into the case and questioned what it did after Asiedu had mentioned the names of his accomplices.

But BNI Director Pius Awelinga was quoted on Citi FM last Friday as denying any cover-up in the case and telling journalists that they only kept Asiedu in their custody on behalf of the police.

Interestingly, since the BNI released Asiedu back into police custody, the two alleged accomplices - being Junior Agoogo who appears to have been identified as Vincent Bosso and Avenger - have been picked up.

MP’s Assignment
Daniel Asiedu had said emphatically in his statement that it was Junior Agoogo and Avenger who recruited him for the crime and also said that when he asked them about the source of the money, the two had told him it was an MP’s assignment he had been asked to carry out.

Suspected Cover-up
One the eve of JB’s funeral recently, NPP MP for Obuasi East, Edward Ennin, lambasted the authorities for not doing enough to bring the perpetrators of the heinous crime to book and said on Adom TV that he suspected an official cover-up.

According to the vociferous MP, there is a video recording that appears to show the moment the assailants of the murdered MP left the crime scene at his Shiashie residence.



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