Residents of Kasoa in the Central Region were on Saturday, April 3, thrown in a state of shock following the alleged murder of an 11-year-old boy by two suspected teenagers at Coca Cola near Lamptey Mills.
The deceased identified as Ismael Mensah was lured to an uncompleted building and murdered by the two suspects who are currently in police custody assisting with investigation.
The father of one of the suspects, who was first to discover the body of the murdered victim in an interview with the media indicated that his son denied involved in the murder.
According to him, his son confessed that he only “called the boy (deceased) to the scene upon the instructions of his friend ” adding that his son revealed that “he wasn’t aware that his plan was to murder the boy.”
Speaking to the media he said: “I was in the room babysitting my 3 months-old baby when my wife who had gone to fetch water reported to me that one of our youngest sons claims that they have buried something at a said location. I asked who did it and he said it was Felix and one of his friends. I straight ahead went to the scene, it was an uncompleted building.”
“When I arrived, I saw some blocks on the ground, when I removed it, I released that there was blood. I am a mason so I went for my shovel and started digging. The first thing to come out was the hand of the deceased. I pulled the body out and called my wife to identify the body which she said was Hajai’s son.”
“… I called my son and he said he wasn’t part of the murder adding that he only called the boy (deceased) to the scene upon the instructions of his friend. So, I quickly went around in search of the boy and when I got hold of him, I brought him here to prevent him from escaping... I wanted the truth on whether my son was being honest or not… I intended to save my son if truly his account was what happened on that day. After grabbing the boy, I then proceeded to alert the public.”
“My son admitted to me that he called the boy (now deceased) whom he was playing a game with to the scene based on the instruction of his friend. According to him, he wasn’t aware that his friend had a plan to murder the boy. When he arrived at the scene, his friend hit the young boy with a stick, this was what my son told, I can't say much because I wasn’t around at the time of the murder.”
But according to the Ghana Police Service, the suspects had violently killed Ishmael and had planned to use his body parts for ritual purposes.
When GhanaWeb visited the family house of the deceased and spoke to his father he indicated that his family will use other means to achieve justice if the law does not take its course.
Read the Police statement below:
On 3/4/2021 at 10:15 am, the Kasoa Divisional Command received a distress call that there has been a ritual murder at Coca Cola near Lamptey Mills, a suburb of Kasoa.
Police proceeded to the crime scene and saw a young boy wearing a blue shirt and red/white pair of knickers dead in a pool of blood in an uncompleted building.
Initial investigation conducted by police revealed that the deceased name was Ishmael Mensah age 11, and that about 0930 hours the same day suspects Felix Nyarko and Nicholas Kini aged 16 and 17 years respectively, invited the deceased to the uncompleted building and hit him with a club and cement blocks killing him instantly.
Suspects after that buried deceased in the uncompleted building awaiting his removal in the night for ritual purpose.
The body of the deceased has since been deposited at the Police hospital mortuary awaiting post-mortem whilst suspects have been detained to assist police with investigations.
The investigation are ongoing.
Father of one of the suspects giving an account of the murder