The trial of Daniel Asiedu, the man indicted for the murder of a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa North, Mr J. B Danquah-Adu, will commence today at the Criminal Division of the Accra High Court.
Also standing trial is Vincent Bosso, the second accused person, who together with Asiedu, are alleged to have planned a robbery operation that subsequently resulted in the death of the former legislator.
Asiedu is facing three counts of murder, robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery, while Bosso is facing a charge of conspiracy to commit robbery.
On March 14, 2017, the two were committed to stand trial at the High Court by the Accra Central District Court, presided over by Mr Stephen Owusu, after more than a year of legal wrangling at the court.
What to expect
Being a murder case, the trial will be by jury. One of the initial businesses by the High Court, is therefore, expected to be the empanelling of a jury, which will eventually decide the fate of Asiedu and Bosso.
The State is expected to be represented by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Mrs Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, the prosecutor who represented the State during the committal proceedings at the district court.
Asiedu and Bosso are also expected to be represented by Mr Augustine Obour, who represented the two on pro-bono basis during their time at the district court.
The trial will be presided over by Mr Justice Lawrence Ladzagla Mensah, a Justice of the Court of Appeal, sitting as an additional High Court judge.
Petition
The trial is beginning barely a week after the family of the former MP petitioned President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to institute fresh investigations into the death of the former legislator.
The family made this petition in view of the fact that the police had claimed that Asiedu once said he was hired by someone to go and kill the MP.
“So we believe that there is someone behind it, that is why we are calling on the President to start fresh investigations into the whole case,’’ the spokesperson of the family, Mr Kweku Solomon, said.
Facts
The facts as presented by the prosecution were that on February 8, 2016, Asiedu and Bosso decided to embark on a robbery operation at Shiashie, a suburb of East Legon, where the MP resided.
Asiedu selected the MP’s house but Bosso disagreed and decided to abandon the robbery operation.
At about 11:40 p.m., the MP arrived home and went to bed in a room located on the first floor of his house.
Around 1 a.m. that same night, Asiedu, armed with a catapult, a cutter and a sharp knife, went to the legislator’s house. He entered the house by scaling the wall on the blind side of a security man who was fast asleep.
On entering the house, Asiedu climbed onto a porch on the top floor with a ladder and entered the MP’s bedroom through a window.
While Asiedu was searching the room, the MP woke up and held him. There ensued a struggle, during which Asiedu stabbed the MP in the right chest above the breast.
In the ensuing struggle, Asiedu also sustained various degrees of injury in his palm and chest.
The legislator fell by his bed, bleeding profusely, after which Asiedu stabbed him several times on the right chest and neck.
On realising that the MP was dying, Asiedu left the room and took with him three iPhones.
Meanwhile, the struggle between the MP and Asiedu drew the attention of the security man in the house, who alerted others in the neighbourhood.
Asiedu, however, jumped over the electric fencing on the walls of the house into an adjoining house and escaped.
He took the phones to a phone repairer to decode them, but the repairer saw bloodstains and the pictures of the MP on the phones and alerted the police.
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