The family of an aircraft engineer who was murdered in 2018 at Akyem Asuboa in the Eastern Region has rejected an account given by one of three suspects.

According to the police, Joseph Kwasi Effah, has confessed to killing 34-year-old Prince Kwabena Kumi whom he said he mistakenly shot after mistaking him for a pig.

The suspect is said to be one of the three members of a neighbourhood watch committee who confessed to killing the aeronautical engineer.

The prime suspect, Joseph Kwasi Effah aka Kwesi Tailor, according to the police confessed to killing Prince Kwabena Kumi with his locally manufactured single-barrelled gun.

The 34-year-old was murdered in April 2018 when he was visiting his family house at Akim Asuboa near Akim Oda in the Eastern Region.

Mysterious death on Good Friday

The aeronautical engineer was on his way to surprise his mother during the Easter holidays when the police in Akroso seized his vehicle.

Abena Osei Debrah, sister of the deceased said the police had alleged the deceased was driving under the influence of alcohol.

She told Joy News’ Maxwell Agbagba that her brother was prevented three times from boarding a commercial vehicle to his destination. His body was later found in a ditch and the family suspected foul play.

Abena Osei Debrah said she called him but his phone had been switched off only to be called later and told that the deceased’s car had been sighted at the Akroso police station.

She said true to what the caller said, they found the car “with some goods he had bought for his mother, his phone and other belongings intact.”

According to her, although they found “a lot of wounds [cuts] on the body” the family is waiting for a postmortem to proceed. 

Arrests and investigation

Five persons were initially arrested but were set free after investigations.

The police in the Eastern Region launched investigations to unravel how he was mysteriously killed on a Good Friday.

Upon interrogation, the suspect said on March 31, 2018, he was assigned together with Kwabena Abankwah to patrol the Asuboa bungalow and Cannan junction.

Disclosing how the engineer was killed, a police statement released by Sergeant Francis Gomado, acting PRO of the Eastern Region Police said, the suspect told them that, “on April 1, 2018, at about 01:35 am, they went to Dabiso junction to patrol but he heard the sound of a pig in a nearby bush and he shot at the direction but he later discovered having shot a human being”.

The two of them abandoned the body out of fear and failed to disclose the incident to any other person.

On April 19, 2021, at about 10 pm, Kwabena Akwaah was also arrested.

But the deceased's uncle, Nana Nkrumah Kumi, says the account given to the police by the suspects is an after thought.

According to him, the autopsy report suggests that Kwabena Kumi was shot 12 times in his neck and chest before he died.

"We won't accept such stories, we want further investigations into the claim that he mistook him for a pig. What did they go to do where my son was killed?

"The report we have suggested that he was killed from close range. Even though he has confessed to killing him, we need further interrogation to unravel the real circumstances that led to the killing," he stated.

Meanwhile, a third suspect, 58-year-old Kwesi Bosompem has also been apprehended assisting police with investigations.