Ashaiman Murder Suspects Denied Bail

The Ashaiman Circuit Court presided over by Simon J. Gaga has once again denied bail to six suspects picked up in connection with the murder of Trooper Imoro Sherrif at Taifa, a suburb of Ashaiman on March 4.

This was after the prosecutor prayed the court not to grant them bail, indicating that giving the accused persons bail would impede and interfere with investigations.

Earlier on the same day, Monday, March 27, 2023, the Tema District Court also denied bail to the two main accused persons, Samuel Tetteh alias Wiper and Abubakar Sadick alias Birdman when they appeared on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder and murder.

The Tema District Magistrate Court, presided over by Benedicta Antwi, remanded the accused persons after Superintendent Sylvester Asare told the court that the duplicate docket was ready and has been forwarded to the Office of the Attorney General for study and advice.

He mentioned that the case is still under investigation and prayed the court to remand the accused persons in police custody.

The Magistrate, Benedicta Antwi granted the prayer and remanded the accused persons to reappear on April 11, 2023.

Manhunt

Meanwhile, the police are on the manhunt for another suspect in connection with the death of Imoro Sherrif.

According to the police, they are collaborating with other institutions to arrest the suspect who is critical to the case.

It would be recalled that the police after a week of sustained intelligence-led operations, arrested six persons at different dates and various locations within Ashaiman and its environs for their suspected involvement in the murder of Imoro Sherrif, a soldier.

On March 4, police received information that a male adult had been found lying dead at Ashaiman Taifa in the Greater Accra Region.

A team of police officers proceeded to the said location and confirmed the incident.

Police immediately commenced an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of the victim.

The officers cordoned off the scene and called in the specialist, Police Crime Scene Team to process the scene for forensic analysis.

The Crime Scene Team retrieved a number of items, including a knife with blood stains on it and a backpack. In the backpack, police found a Samsung tablet, an Apple laptop, a military uniform with the name tag “Imoro”, eight other items of clothing, as well as a Ghana Card and a Health Insurance card bearing the name Imoro Sherrif.

Judging from the contents of the backpack, the police suspected the victim could be a soldier, and in line with police standard operating procedure for handling institution-based victims, the military was accordingly notified of the incident and some military personnel came to identify the deceased to police as Imoro Sheriff, a soldier.

The body of the deceased was thereafter conveyed to a hospital for preservation and autopsy.

As part of the investigation, an intelligence-led operation was immediately launched within Ashaiman and other strategic locations of interest to follow up on all relevant leads on the case.

On the same day, consistent with Ghanaian tradition and as part of the investigation process, a team of police officers after identifying the residence of the parents of the deceased, visited them, commiserated with them and assured them of a thorough investigation into the matter.

During the visit, the parents informed the police that the deceased was stationed at Sunyani but had come to Accra on a course.

Investigations further revealed that on March 3, the deceased had visited a female friend at Ashaiman Newtown at about 10:30pm and left the place in the middle of the night at about 1:30am, on March 4.

After almost a week of painstaking intelligence-led operations, on March 9, the police arrested suspects Safianu Musah alias Dayorgu and Ibrahim Abdul Rakib at their hideouts in Ashaiman.

Two other suspects, Samuel Tetteh alias Wiper and Abubakar Sadick alias Birdman were also arrested at their hideouts on March 10.

Two additional suspects, Yussif Mohammed and Abdul Gafaru Abdul Karim were arrested on March 11 and 12, respectively.

Further investigation has established that suspects Samuel Tetteh and Abubakar Sadick at about 1:45am on March 4, 2023 attacked the deceased at Ashaiman Taifa, in an attempt to rob him of his phone and a backpack.

The deceased, however, resisted and struggled with the suspects. During the struggle, suspect Samuel Tetteh pulled out a knife and stabbed the deceased in the arm, snatched his phone and bolted, leaving the deceased with the knife stuck in his arm.

A postmortem examination was performed on the deceased’s body on March 8, after which the pathologist gave the verbal cause of death as exsanguination and laceration of major vessels of the left arm consistent with the stabbed injury.

Investigations also revealed that suspects Samuel Tetteh and Abubakar Sadick sold the phone which they had robbed from the deceased to suspect Ibrahim Abdul Rakib, who later sold it to suspect Safianu Musah.

Suspect Safianu Musah is being evasive as to the whereabouts of the phone, and claimed to have sold it to suspect Yussif Mohammed and later to suspect Abdul Gafaru Abdul Karim.

Both suspects have been arrested and are assisting in the investigation to recover the phone.