The Deputy National Secretary for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Obiri Boahen, has chastised the Chief of Abesim, Nana Kumi Acheaw, for suggesting that the prime suspect, Richard Appiah, who is at the centre of the murder case at Alaska, a suburb of Abesim, could be mentally challenged.
The 28-year-old was arrested on Saturday, August 21, 2021, after he allegedly butchered a 15-year-old Junior High School 2 pupil, Stephen Sarpong and kept his body parts in a double door fridge.
A further search of the suspect’s room also revealed the lifeless body of his 12-year-old step-brother, Louis Agyemang, and another yet to be identified body.
Police investigation has since led to the arrest of a second suspect.
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Earlier reports indicated that on Sunday, August 22, Nana Acheaw allegedly told journalists, after a closed-door meeting with the acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Dr Akuffo Dampare, that he and the Abesim Traditional Council believe suspect Appiah is not mentally stable.
He claimed they are convinced due to the behaviour the suspect had exhibited in recent times and therefore appealed to the IGP and the investigators to subject the suspect to psychiatric examinations.
However, some residents, who spoke to JoyNews, disagreed with the assertion that the suspect in question is mentally challenged.
Speaking to Mark Abisah, on Suncity Radio in Sunyani on Tuesday, the deputy scribe of the NPP advised Nana Acheaw to desist from any prejudicial comment if he cannot commiserate with the bereaved families.
“The families are traumatised, they need to be consoled at this crucial moment. Somebody should tell the chief of Abesim to keep mute if he has nothing good to say,” he said.
He recalled an occasion where counsel for Daniel Asiedu, the alleged killer of the Member of Parliament for Abuakwa North, J. B. Danquah-Adu, insisted on a psychiatric examination but it eventually turned out that he was mentally stable.
Mr Boahen, who is also a legal practitioner, questioned why various heads of state have failed to sanction the killing of criminals on Ghana’s death row who are being fed on the tax of the very people they unleashed their atrocities on.
He also counselled his colleague lawyers not to waste their time and resources to shield such criminals.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Police Service, in a statement, said investigators have exhumed the intestines of one of the bodies cut into pieces in a cocoa farm near the residence of the alleged killer for pathological analysis and forensic examination in Accra.
The Police Administration also assured the public, especially the affected families and the people of Abesim of a thorough investigation to bring the perpetrator(s) to justice.