The Deputy National Secretary for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Obiri Boahen, has chastised the Chief of Abesim, Nana Kumi Acheaw, for allegedly suggesting that the prime suspect, Richard Appiah, at the centre of the murder case at Alaska, a suburb of Abesim, is mentally challenged.
 
The 28-year-old was arrested on Saturday, August 21, 2021, after he allegedly butchered a 15-year-old JHS 2 student, Stephen Sarpong and hoarded his body parts in a double door fridge.

A further search of the suspect's room also revealed the lifeless body of his 12-year-old step-brother, Louis Agyemang, and another yet to be identified body.

Police investigation has since led to the arrest of a second suspect.

Earlier reports indicate that on Sunday, August 22, Nana Kumi Acheaw allegedly told journalists, after a closed-door meeting with the acting IGP, Dr. Akuffo Dampare, that he and the Abesim Traditional Council believe Richard Appiah is not mentally stable.

He claimed they are convinced due to the behaviour the suspect had exhibited in recent times and therefore appealed to the IGP and the investigators to subject the suspect to psychiatric examinations.

However, some residents who spoke to JoyNews disagree with the assertion that the suspect in question is mentally challenged.
 
But speaking to Mark Abisah, on Suncity Radio in Sunyani on Tuesday, the deputy scribe of the NPP advised Nana Kumi Acheaw to desist from any prejudicial comment if he cannot commiserate with the bereaved families.
 
“The families are traumatized, they need to be consoled at this crucial moment. Somebody should tell the chief of Abesim to keep mute if he has nothing good to say”, he said.
 
He recalled an occasion where counsel for Daniel Asiedu, the alleged killer of the Member of Parliament for Abuakwa North, J. B. Danquah Adu, insisted on a psychiatric examination but it eventually turned out that he was mentally stable.
 
Nana Obiri Boahen, who is also a legal practitioner, questioned why various heads of state have failed to sanction the killing of criminals on Ghana’s death row who are being fed on the tax of the very people they unleash their atrocities on.
 
He also counselled his colleague lawyers not to waste their time and resources to shield such criminals.
 
Meanwhile, the Ghana Police Service, in a statement said investigators have exhumed the intestines of one of the body cut into pieces at a cocoa farm near the residence of the alleged killer for pathological analysis and forensic examination in Accra.

The Police Administration also assured the public, especially the affected families and the people of Abesim of a thorough investigation to bring the perpetrator(s) to justice.