2 More Arrested Over GPHA Manager Murder

In a surprising turn of events, police have rearrested two suspects who were previously arrested and freed in connection with the murder of Josephine Asante Tandoh, a senior staff of Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA). The two suspects, Dominic Owusu and Christian Adjei, who were the driver and houseboy of the late Josephine Asante respectively, were taken into police custody alongside two other suspects - Richard Kwabena Kwakye and Frederick Owusu Oppong who were arrested last month.

Dominic and Christian were discharged by the court last year following the advice by the Office of the Attorney General until their latest arrest. All four accused persons have been remanded in police custody for another two weeks by the TDC Magistrate Court in Tema. However, the lawyer for two of the accused persons, who are currently in police custody, has filed an application for bail at the Tema High Court. The application for bail pending trial will be heard on Monday, June 19, 2023.

Fact of the case, according to police are that suspects, Richard Kwabena Kwakye, 37-year-old former GPHA driver, and Frederick Owusu, a 51-year-old taxi driver, were apprehended after fleeing to Burkina Faso following the incident on January 13, 2019. The suspects laid ambush for the victim around her residence at block E, EMEF Estate on the Afienya road, where she resided together with her husband and their 12-year son. The victim had attended a get-together party organised by the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority at the senior staff club house at Tema Community Six and returning home, when the suspects followed her vehicle into the compound and entered her apartment before stabbing and strangling her to death.

At about 3:30am that Sunday, the house boy and the deceased’s son heard some unusual sound on the compound and therefore conducted a search but did not find anything. They therefore retired to bed. However, the house boy claimed he saw a male figure wearing a black t-shirt and a jeans running through the living room and escaped through the main gate.At about 8:30am on Sunday, January 13, 2019, the house boy who was later arrested and the son tried opening Mrs Asante’s door but found it locked and therefore called the driver.

The driver of the victim, according to the police, found the keys to the house at the entrance of the gate when he went there upon receiving the call and used same to open the deceased’s door and found her in a pool of blood lying supine. Investigators who were assigned to the case after the complaint was lodged, collected semen found in her, finger prints and other evidence at the crime scene. Richard Kwabena Kwakye has since confessed to the crime and named Dominic Owusu as his accomplice, but the latter has allegedly denied any involvement. Investigations are still ongoing to determine the motive behind the murder, leaving GPHA stunned and saddened by the loss of one of their valuable employees, the Marketing and Public Relations Manager of the Authority.