J.B Danquah Adu murder: Court orders retrial
The Accra High Court has ordered the retrial of Daniel Asiedu, a trader, accused of stabbing the Abuakwa North Member of Parliament (MP), J.B Danquah Adu, to death.
This was after a seven-member jury had returned a 4-3 verdict on Asiedu on the charges of robbery and murder.
Four members of the jury found Asiedu, aka Sexy Don Don, not guilty on the charge of robbery while the other three found him guilty.
On the charge of murder, four jurors found Asiedu not guilty, and the three others found him guilty.
The late MP was gruesomely murdered at his residence at Shiashie, near East Legon, Accra, in February 2016.
The court presided by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, ruled that per section 285 of Act 30, the Jury did not have a legally acceptable verdict, hence, discharged the jury.
The judge ordered the retrial of accused, remanded him into lawful custody, and adjourned the matter to December 20, 2024, for mention.
Lawyer for Asiedu, Mr Yaw Dankwah, prayed the court to admit Asiedu to bail to enable him get access to his counsel and prepare adequately for his defence.
Sefakor Batsa, Principal State Attorney, took turns to address the court.
In all, the state called eight witnesses to establish a case against the accused.
However, Sexy Don Don, now 27 years old, did not call any witness. He is said to have committed the offence at the age of 19.
The family of the late J.B Danquah Adu sat through the summing up of the case, but stepped out following the jury’s verdict.
Earlier on, Yaw Dankwah, appealed to the jury to return a verdict of not guilty because evidence of the prosecution was unreliable and full of inconsistencies.
“The evidence of the prosecution cannot stand the test of time. The story is a planned thing, and they just want to pin accused. The chief lead investigator came here as a messenger. He only came to make a mockery of the Police Service because he only worked for his bosses.” Mr Dankwah explained.
According to defence counsel, the pathologist took two years to prepare the autopsy report and it could not be relied on because and the doctor might have forgotten some important things to be included in the report.
Mr Dankwah said the pathologist told the court that the laptop on which he had the report got missing and he depended on notes of his clerk who had no knowledge in the medical field.
Defence counsel questioned prosecution’s inability to call the wife of J.B Danquah and mother-in-law to testify because they were in the house when the incident occurred.
He said his client could not have committed the offence because of the stature of J.B Danquah Adu.
Prosecution recalled that Asiedu robbed the J.B Danquah Adu of three mobiles phones and handed the same over to a phone repairer to charge and unlock them.
“If accused was nowhere near the scene, how could he have had in possession the deceased mobile phones,” prosecution quizzed.
According to prosecution, DNA conducted on the accused’s belongings such as cap, Tee shirt had 100 per cent DNA of accused.
The prosecution case was that sexy Don Don and Vincent Bossu, aka Junior Agogo, were both traders. Asiedu resides at Agbogbloshie while Bossu resides at Madina, all in Accra.
Prosecution held that accused planned to go on robbery on February 8, 2016.
Asiedu armed himself with a knife, cutter, catapult and weapons, boarded a commercial vehicle from Agbogboloshie to Shiashie, but a misunderstanding ensued between the two as to which house to rob.
Bossu left and Asiedu went to the late MP’s house at as bout 1:00am on February 9, 2016.
—GNA
