Cashier’s Death: Two Persons Remanded For Murder

Two persons arraigned in connection with mysterious death of Patience Ago Quaye, a 35-year-old Cashier at the Twumasiwaa General and Specialist Medical Centre have been remanded into police custody by the Kaneshie District Court. This was after the two - Gideon Vitalis, 24, and Mohammed Mubarak, 23, both cleaners were said to have strangled the cashier to death and then managed to siphone a diesel in a standby generator.

They were also said to have stolen an amount of GHc1, 200 cedis from the facility and then took away a mobile phone belonging to the deceased which was later sold for GHc150 cedis at Madina. They are on two provisional charges of conspiracy to commit crime to wit murder and murder. In court on Friday, March 17, when they first appeared before Her Worship Ama Adomako Kwakye, their respective plea were not taken.

Prosecution represented by the Chief Inspector Richard Anane and Inspector Isaac Agyemang prayed the court to remand the accused persons into police custody. Chief Inspector Anane who led the prosecution told the court that the accused robbed the facility of GHc1,200 and also stole a mobile phone of the deceased which was later sold for GHc150 cedis. Gideon Vitalis, the first accused is said to be a Nigerian and was sacked from the facility for pilfering.

Brief facts

Chief Inspector Anane said the deceased Patience Ago Quaye, 35, was a single mother and a cashier who was working with the Twumasiwaa Medical Centre at Ogbojo near ARS, Accra. He said that the two accused persons - Gideon Vitalis,(A1), a Nigerian national and Mohammed Mubarik (A1), are cleaners also working at the same facility.

The Prosecutor said, in the month of the February, 2023, Vitalis was dismissed for pilfering and was warned not to step foot at the hospital. He told the court that despite the warnings from management, Vitalis has consistently been sneaking into the yard with help of Mubarak who was still working at the facility for criminal activities.

The Prosecutor said on the eve of March 6, 2023, the deceased was for morning shift and reported for work as the cashier on duty. Chief Inspector Anane said on that same evening, Mubarak called Vitalis on phone to come to the premises for them to siphone diesel from a standby generator. He said after successfully siphoning the diesel, the two accused persons, then planned to steal the daily sales from the cash office.

Strangled

The Prosecutor said on March 7, 2023 at about 1:30am, the victim now deceased came out to use the washroom at the Administrator’s Office. He said Mubarak who was spying on the victim’s movement quickly called Vitalis to alert him and he (A2) followed victim to Administrator’s Office grabbed her from behind and strangled her to death. The Prosecutor said Vitalis dragged the lifeless body of the deceased and dumped it in the store room and locked the door.

Stolen items

He said Vitalis took the cash office key, opened the door, ransacked the office and then made away with cash of GHc1,200.00 and mobile phone of the deceased. The next morning the deceased was nowhere to be found. The management and her family mounted a search for her but she could not be found until a report was made to Police as missing.

A2 who knew that the deceased has been killed and dumped in the store room, pretended and was part of the search party, Chief Inspector Anane told the court. He said on March 8, 2023, Police arrived at the facility and during a thorough search in all the offices and rooms, Police realized that the key to the store room could not be found therefore the door was forced open and the victim’s body was found in a state of decomposition.

Pretense

Prosecutor said A1 bolted after the crime whilst A2 was still at post pretending to be innocent but investigations led to his arrest at his hideout in Koforidua. He said A1 during interrogation admitted having conspired with A2 to kill the deceased to enable them get access to the cash point to steal the money. The Prosecutor said A1 sold deceased phone to Ebenezer Dzigbehlo at Madina for GHc150.00 and claimed he gave the cash of GHc1, 200.00 to a friend for safekeeping. Investigations the Prosecutor said are ongoing.