Insanity plea will be an epic travesty

Too much water, as it were, has passed under the bridge. And so Mr. Augustine Obuor’s plea that Mr. Daniel Asiedu be allowed to undergo psychiatric examination would not help the alleged murderer of Mr. Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, the slain New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Akyem-Abuakwa North (See “J. B. Danquah’s ‘Killer’ Demands Access to Pregnant Girlfriend” Daily Guide/Ghanaweb.com 3/16/16).

As of this writing, 19-year-old Mr. Asiedu had already been widely reported to have confessed to police investigators that he had been paid the sum of GHC 2,000 (Two-Thousand Cedis), or thereabouts, to execute Mr. Danquah-Adu. Now we learn that the prime suspect has dramatically changed his story and is claiming that the gruesome deed was completely a solo act. The circumstances do not add up, namely, the means by which he gained access both to the compound and bedroom of his victim and the level of security protection in and around the residence of the slain politician.

Mr. Asiedu, according to initial police reports, had said that he had used some of his blood money to purchase a pair of shoes and some clothes. This line of the investigations ought to be vigorously pursued to its logical conclusions. What amused me, though, was the report that the suspect was protesting his solitary confinement by personnel of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI). It well appears that the suspect is still in a state of denial vis-à-vis the enormity of the crime of which he has been charged. The suspect also does not seem to appreciate the fact that as a murder suspect, he has become too dangerous to be permitted around other inmates in the custody of the BNI. He may even be a danger to himself, which is why one hopes that he has been put under a 24-hour surveillance. He needs to be kept alive and thoroughly deposed. He may be the most important witness to his own crime, and may also hold the key to exposing the real mastermind(s) behind the crime.

It is quite certain that there are other actors of much higher social status and political clout involved in the brutal liquidation of Mr. Danquah-Adu. Which is why I previously called for the involvement of more hi-tech equipped and better trained criminal investigators, such as seasoned personnel from the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and UK’s Scotland Yard. Our police and BNI operatives have shown themselves to be woefully incapable of taking the proverbial bull by the horn. About the only aspect of the suspect’s profile that makes me agree with Lawyer Obuor that his client may be in dire need of psychiatric examination, has to do with Mr. Asiedu’s alleged demand for conjugal access to his pregnant girlfriend. Could it be that the alleged killer has been told that some other inmates in his situation have been routinely granted conjugal access to their spouses and companions? Or he may have misguidedly interpreted the judicial order for his human rights to be jealously protected to imply that he is to be treated almost as if he has not been charged with the crime of whose confession he now finds his freedom severely restricted.

But even here, it could well be that the unnamed personality whom Mr. Asiedu initially claimed to police investigators as his sponsor in the contract assassination of Mr. Danquah-Adu had also promised to return the life of the suspect to normalcy as quickly as possible. In other words, whoever hired or contracted with Mr. Asiedu may well have assured the latter of an air-tight personal and judicial protection. Whatever the reality of this case may be, one thing is certain: there is more to the death of Mr. Danquah-Adu than a 19-year-old bedroom intruder with a butcher’s knife.

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