We the executive and the entire students of the Mountcrest University College, Kanda, Accra,  have learnt and with a heavy heart the shooting and killing of Mr Kofi Quist Defor, a second year law student of our school, at his resident in Mataheko near Tema in the Greater Accra Region on Saturday, December 28, 2013.

The callous and cowardly act by the perpetrators of this heinous crime has robbed the nation of an intelligent, promising legal luminary, top security expert and a unifier.

As our course, class and year mate and the SRC nominee on Security and Peace Affairs, we are saddened and shocked by the untimely death of our brother and colleague.

While expressing our condolences to the bereaved family especially the wife, Mrs Kafui Magdalene Defor, her five month old baby boy, the entire family and the Management of the Ghana Immigration Service and Mountcrest University College on the loss of Kofi Quist, we do not wholly accept the narrations and media stories that the killing of our colleague is just another robbery attack in the Tema area. Hasty rationalisation of the gruesome murder of our colleague and brother must cease until proven.

Circumstances resulting in the torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and consequent shooting of Mr Kofi Quist Defor and inconsistencies in the police account as published in the media call for thorough investigations to unravel any mystery surrounding his demise. Mr Quist as we knew was security conscious and it baffles our imagination how the so-called robbers got access to his living room. Besides, we are told the robbers escaped with his two mobile phones, Samsung galaxy tab and laptop as against money they had initially demanded from him and which he was willing to give out. Are these ordinary robbers? For the information of the public, the two flat screen television sets were taken away and some amount of money forcefully taken from the wife. What is more terrifying, horrifying and inhuman was the subjection of Mr Quist to beatings using other instrument like hoes and clubs amidst screaming before shooting him.

While not attempting to cast a slur on the reputation of the state investigative machinery and the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service or doubt their competency, we fervently suggest that the transfer of our colleague to Asikuma from the Permit Issuing Department of the Immigration Service and alleged threat on him should be investigated.

We are of the view that the recent cold blooded killings of innocent persons including Mr Kofi Quist Defor and the reactionary posture of the security agencies especially the Ghana Police Service are worrisome. The security background of Mr Kofi Quist Defor should serve as a wake-up call on the security agencies to beef up intelligence, security and ensure law and order as well as peace in the nation. Ghanaians should not go about our businesses and to bed in fear as it appears to be prevailing currently.

Meanwhile, a delegation of the SRC of Mountcrest Univeristy College led by its President, Mr Charles Minkah and Management of the School have paid separate visits to the wife and family of Mr Quist to console them.

 

 

Charles Kwaku Minkah

President, SRC.

Mountcrest Univeristy College, Kanda, Accra.

December 31, 2013.