• Lawyer Maurice Ampaw believes the involvement of some youths in murder activities is because of pressure to make money
• He does not believe the Abesim murder suspect has mental issues
• The private legal practitioner wants the matter to be investigated thoroughly
Private legal practitioner, Lawyer Maurice Ampaw, has attributed the growing involvement of some youth in recorded murder cases to the level of pressure they (youth) are facing to get rich.
Lawyer Ampaw was speaking specifically on the case of one Richard Appiah who was recently arrested by the police at Abesim in the Brong Ahafo Region for allegedly killing three boys.
The 28-year-old suspect upon his arrest and a subsequent search in his room was discovered to be keeping the body parts of his victims in a fridge.
Lawyer Maurice Ampaw in an interview with Oman Channel said the actions of the suspect cannot be associated with mental health but rather a result of the pressure on the Ghanaian youth to make money.
“I don’t think he has a mental issue. It is a reflection of the pressure on the youth; the guy is a youth. A youth is between the ages of 15 and 35 so he represents the youth and it tells you that the youth are desperate to make it in life. Nothing will make you kill someone apart from desperation, and the purpose of the killing is to make money. If you look at it, he killed them for money and nothing else,” he said.
He further stated that the suspect by his actions must have had people he was servicing by selling the human parts to them and thus called for a thorough investigation into the case.
“He would not have done it if his nobody was patronizing him. It is just like prostitution, people patronize them. He has people behind him who benefit from what he does. These are people who get human parts from him for their rituals. He has a market and so we must take time to unravel his network of people he deals with.
“But at the end of the day, it bore down to the fact that the youth are desperate to make it in life. They are not ready to go through the process. Back then as a young man you aspire to be Christ-like or follow the steps of your mother and father. Our parents were not focused on making money, their focus was on good character and making a name. We looked at good name and life, those are the things that inspired us to go to school. These days we don’t look at that anymore. In fact, now if you have a good name and you are poor nobody respects you. It’s all about money and those who make money are respected and honoured regardless of how they make their money,” he added.
Richard Appiah, arrested on August 20, 2021, is reported to have murdered his own stepbrother and two other boys aged between 12 and 15.
In a related development, a second suspect arrested in connection with the murder has been discharged by the police.
The suspect whose identity was withheld by the police was discharged after investigations established he had no links to the case.
The main suspect is however expected to appear before the Kaneshie magistrate court on September 15, 2021, on provisional charges of two counts of murder.
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