The late BNI officer
Six
suspects arrested in connection with the deadly shooting incident at Mankessim
in the Central Region during a chieftaincy procession have appeared at the Cape
Coast District Court 2 charged provisionally with conspiracy and murder.
The
court presided over by Gloria Mensah Bonsu remanded the suspects in police
custody until January 19, 2020 for investigations to continue.
The
suspects included Nana Oboso, who surviving victims think was behind the
shooting; Kwame Adu, Kwame Buako, Kofi Ababio, Yaw Opoku and Kofi Abban Dadzie.
The
Mfantseman Municipal Director of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI),
Samuel Ampofo, and a student were shot dead as others sustained gunshot
injuries during the installation of a queen mother at Mankessim in the Central
Region on Saturday.
An
Inspector of Police, Detective Inspector William Nyarko of the Mankessim
Station Criminal Investigations Department (CID), was also hit and was in
critical condition with pellets lodged in his body.
The
others who were injured were identified as Kwesi Owusu, 65; Frederick Amoanoo Dadzie,
37; Nana Boako, 29; Benedrick Nana Banco, 29, and a yet-to-be identified
27-year-old man.
The
deceased BNI officer was part of a security detail leading the procession of
the newly installed queen mother, Nana Araba Otuah II, when they were hit by
pellets from firearms said to have been fired from a nearby storey building
during the procession.
The
incident was a bloody chapter in the long-drawn chieftaincy dispute in which a
court ruling nullified the enstoolment of Nana Ama Amisah, the substantive
queen mother, ordering the deletion of her name and that of the Omanhene of
Mankessim from the register of the National House of Chiefs.
Police Report
Whilst
the newly installed queen mother was being carried in a palanquin and paraded
in a procession along the Mankessim-Ananfo road, according to a police report,
some gun men in a storey building near the Ananfo Junction opened fire on those
at the head of the procession.
Background
A
Cape Coast High Court order which nullified the enstoolment of the occupant of
the Mankessim stool and the substantive queen mother Nana Ama Amisah and the
subsequent green light to Nana Araba Otuah II to take her place was characterized
by the traditional procession on the streets of Mankessim.
Some
killjoys seeking to mar the process and merriment which followed engaged
killers who took cover from a nearby storey building from where they fired
shots into the excited crowd.
The
BNI officer was particularly targeted by a lone shooter who stalked him and
eventually shot at him.
The spent cartridges were the main telltale evidence picked by police officers who stormed the storey building from where the shooters fired.
By Nana Kwasi
