Accra, Sept. 16, GNA – The Four persons picked up by the Police in connection with the murder of the 66-year-old Law Lecturer, Professor Emmanuel Yaw Benneh, have been remanded into Police custody by the Kaneshie District Court.
James Nana Womba, 26, and Christian Pobee, 32, both cleaners; Isaac Botchwey, 34, a houseboy and Adams Mensah Mansur, 52, a gardener, alleged to have caused the death of Prof. Benneh have been charged with murder.
The Court presided over by Mrs. Eleanor Kakra Barnes-Botwe preserved their pleas.
Declining the accused persons’ bail application, the Judge explained that the Court lacked the jurisdiction to admit the accused persons to bail, noting that the offence of the accused persons was also a first degree felony.
They are to reappear on September 30.
Mr Robert Asumaa, defence counsel for Botchwey and Mansur, however, prayed the Court to admit his clients to bail because they had fixed places of abode.
Mr Asumaa noted that Botchwey had been adopted by the Prof Benneh and he had the Law Lecturer of the University of Ghana for the past 26 years.
While serving him, Counsel said Botchwey washed and cooked for Prof. Benneh.
Mr Asumaa claimed the prosecution’s facts were “wanting in inaccuracy and they had failed to establish the essential ingredients of murder.”
He said the demise of the Law Lecturer had been a big blow, not only to his family, but the legal fraternity and the entire nation and that the voice of justice was crying loud for the culprits to be dealt with according to the legal system of the country.
“In an attempt to achieve this end, there is the need for thorough investigations to be conducted in order not to violate the right of the innocent, such as Botchwey and Mansur. The accused are presumed innocent until they are proven guilty by a Court of competent jurisdiction.”
The Defence counsel said if the accused persons were granted bail, they would assist Police in their investigations.
Inspector Ebenezer Teye-Okuffo, however, opposed to the grant of bail, saying investigations were ongoing.
The prosecution said the accused persons’ mobile phones were currently in the custody of the Police and that they were yet to procure a Court order to “go into the phones.”
“We are yet to get the itemized bill of the phones from Vodafone and MTN. If granted bail they would hamper investigations. We pray for one month to enable us to conduct full investigations.”
The prosecution said Akosua Benneh, the elder sister of the deceased, was the complainant, while the accused persons were domestic staff in the house of the Prof Benneh at Adjiriganor, near East Legon.
The prosecution said on September 13, this year, the body of the 66-year-old Lecturer was found in a pool of blood in a subpoena position with his hand and legs tied.
It said the deceased had been pulled from his veranda to his bedroom and had multiple body cuts with a piece of rug in his mouth, while his body in a state of decomposition.
The Prosecution said the body of the lecturer had since been deposited at the Police Hospital Morgue in Accra.
The accused persons were subsequently picked up by the Police, on Sunday, September 13.
GNA