"Conjectures" Cannot Be Avoided, Mr. Tedam

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
May 24, 2015
E-mail: [email protected]

Following the burial of the acid-dousing assassinated Upper-East's Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Adams Mahama, the Chairman of the party's Council-of-Elders issued a press statement warning NPP members, supporters and sympathizers to desist from making any prejudicial comments and remarks on electronic and print media that may hinder police investigations into the death of Mr. Mahama (See "NPP Elders Warn Against Conjecture In Death Of Adams Mahama" MyJoyOnline.com / Ghanaweb.com 5/23/15).

Chairman C. K. Tedam's all-to-constructive admonishment may have come too late. For already, the Nasara Club Coordinator, Mr. Kamal Deen Abdulai (I hope I have his name written down correctly) has made public the fact that less than 24 hours before his fatal assault, Mr. Abdulai had informed the deceased man that Mr. Mahama's life was in danger and therefore the latter needed to ensure that he had a strong security network around him. The Nasara Club leader further notes that his warning was based on reliable intelligence. And so far, it appears that Mr. Abdulai's source was, indeed, unimpeachable.

It also well appears that the people who had the late NPP Regional Chairman on their hit-list or his body in the crosshairs of their radar were known insiders or members of the New Patriotic Party. If the preceding observation is accuarate or has validity, then it well appears that Mr. Tedam's cautionary note comes a bit late in the game, as it were. We are also reliably informed by those closest to the late Mr. Adams Mahama that shortly before the latter breathed his last breath, he had informed these close relatives and associates that his assailants - now assassins - were known members of the New Patriotic Party.

I must also quickly interject that nearly 8 years ago, in 2007, an in-law and blood relative of mine, Mr. Prince Yeboah (aka Cudjoe), a local NPP executive who was very close to Prof. Mike Oquaye, was assassinated in the Ashongman Estates area of Accra. At the time, we were told that all efforts were being exerted to bring Mr. Yeboah's killers to book. As of this writing, nothing substantive has come out of police investigations. What I want my readers to understand is that my publicly expressed sentiments towards the Adams Mahama murder is more than mere academic exercise. I know exactly what his family members, relatives and friends are going through. Mr. Yeboah also left behind two very young children.

And not only that, Mr. Mahama, unlike Mr. Yeboah, had been able to live long enough to identify and name his attackers in the presence of police investigators. If the preceding account accurately reflects what we know, so far, about the events leading to the tragic demise of Mr. Mahama, then, of course, there is little conjecture than anybody can legitimately be accused of indulging in, short of outrageous accusations such as have been allegedly made by Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, the firebrand Assin-Central NPP-MP. According to widespread reports, the Oman-Fm Radio proprietor has implicated Messrs. John Agyekum-Kufuor and Kwadwo Mpiani in Mr. Adams Mahama's death.

Now, I have written adequately about Mr. Agyapong's indisputably outrageous claim and so do not intend to reprise the same here. What I would like to significantly add to the preceding is that already the Mahama family has appealed to the executive leadership of the party that they want the killers of their relative to be summarily expelled from the party, even as criminal proceedings by investigators from the Ghana Police Service, as well as other pertinent security agencies, are initiated against the alleged criminal suspects.

What this also means is that, strictly speaking, there is little conjecture, if at all, for any critical thinker to make regarding the identity of the culprits, unless Mr. Tedam and his associates have any reasons to impeach the credibility of the deceased. Still, I can also appreciate where the members of the NPP Council-of-Elders are coming from, in terms of possible media compromising of investigative work. Unfortunately, in a constitutional democratic culture such as Ghana's Fourth Republic, there is little that anybody can do to limit or restrain free speech on such a controversial national issue whose beginnings actually emanate from elsewhere and require immediate extirpation, if the likeness of such depraved act of barbarity is not to be repeated in the offing.

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