The walls of the house are about ten
feet high and fortified with electric fence. At every material moment,
there are two security guards in the house: a private security man from
Westec Security and an armed police officer.
With a CCTV camera in the house, the Essien’s house can be described as very secure for its occupants.
With a CCTV camera in the house, the Essien’s house can be described as very secure for its occupants.
Ironically it was in this house that
23-year old past student of Accra Girls’ Senior High School, Veracity
Elorm Oteng, was allegedly murdered and dumped in a swimming pool. She
was a house help in that house.
The owner of the house and employer of
Elorm, Mr. Ato Essien, is a renowned businessman who lives in Dansoman.
Mr. Essien and his family had travelled to the USA on a holiday at the
time of the incident. Both the police and Elorm’s family have confirmed
that the businessman had travelled.
Elorm was left in the house with two
private security men (who ran night and day shifts), two armed police
officers (who also ran day and night shifts) and a cleaner. Police
investigators say within the period of the murder, there was no intruder
in that house.
So who killed Elorm? And Why?
Justice Tsekpo, who describes himself as
an uncle of Elorm, says the last time he spoke to his niece was in the
early hours of Thursday August 20, this year. His calls, since then,
went unanswered. On Friday, August 21, someone answered the call.
“At 10 O’clock [a.m.] I called again. No
response, till 12:15 [pm] when a male voice picked the call,” Justice
narrates how he got to know about the killing of his niece. “I asked of
the owner of the phone so I could speak to her. The voice said she was
sick, seriously ill so I should rush down to Dansoman and take her to
the hospital.”
When Justice rushed to the house, he was
told that Elorm had attempted to swim that morning and drowned in the
pool. The day private security guard, Mr. Frank Obeng and the day police
guard, Constable Clifford Atsutse, were the ones he met. They told him
his niece had drowned that morning but the body had been conveyed to the
morgue. He said he also met a man who identified himself as “Tailor.”
Sources say his sewing shop is very close to the house. He was the one
who helped Elorm to secure the job in Mr. Ato Essien’s house.
Frank Obeng and Constable Atsutse told
investigators that they had seen Elorm that morning. They claimed she
was very healthy and they expected her to leave the house at about 9am
for the cosmetic shop she often went to help when she finished her
chores in the house. When she failed to leave the house, the security
guards said they went to search for her at about 10 am only to find her
in the swimming pool.
“This is Murder, not drowning.”
Elorm’s body was found floating in the
swimming pool when the police arrived that morning. She was wearing a
green pantie and brassieres. Her slippers and dress were placed by the
pool, suggesting that she went to the pool, undressed and voluntarily
went to swim.
“With my experience in this job, I can say that the girl did not drown,” a police officer said of the body.
“If someone drowns, it takes a long time
for the body to float. If they saw her that morning, it is not possible
for her to drown and within two hours the body would float.”
He added that the people who drown often
have bloated stomachs, and if their stomachs are pressed, water would
come out of them. In Elorm’s case, the police source said there was no
water in her stomach.
“It looks like she was killed earlier and dumped into the pool to suggest that she got drowned,” the police officer said.
That was not the only thing suspicious
about claims that Elorm had drowned. She had serious injuries to her
head, according to accounts of sources that have seen the body as well
as photo evidence.
“One side of the lip, there is a cut
there; blood is [sic] oozing out,” said Justice, the deceased’s uncle,
who was one of the first family members to see the body. “The cheek,
there is a sign of a tooth mark, round. Then the head, close to the ear,
there is a deep hole there. [It’s] something like a piercing. Then the
left side of the head you can see blood all over the place. Then the
eyes, blood coming from the place with whitish liquid. The nose, also
the same,” justice said.
On September 16, 2015, an autopsy was
conducted on Elorm’s body by Dr. L. Edusei at the Police Hospital in
Accra. The causes of death were given as “blunt head injury” and “right
subdural haematoma.”
It is not clear why anyone would kill
Elorm but her uncle has alleged that she ever had a brawl with one the
cleaner, which was resolved. He also alleges that the Elorm complained
about se,xual harassment from one of the police guards of the house.
He therefore wants the two men seriously investigated.
Arrests and Contradiction in Suspects’ accounts
Elorm’s body was found on August 21st and
the police have confirmed that even without the autopsy report, it was
clear from evidence at the crime scene that she had been killed and
dumped in the pool. However, nobody was arrested.
It was after the autopsy report that the
day private security guard, Frank Obeng, and the cleaner, Isaac Donkor
were arrested. The night private security guard, Richard Acquah, was
later arrested.
According to the police, Frank Obeng,
collapsed on the day they were supposed to be taken to court. He was
rushed to the hospital for treatment. When he recovered, he said he
wanted to update the statement he had given to the police.
“He told us that the earlier account
that he and the police guard had seen Elorm alive that morning was not
true. He said they did not see the girl that morning,” a police source
told me.
Mr. Frank Obeng, who is in his 60s is
said to have told the police that the day police guard, Constable
Atsuste, had told him after they discovered the body that they should go
with the earlier account that they had seen the lady that morning. He
said the police officer told him to stick to that account “because dead
bodies don’t talk.”
Sources say Constable Clifford Atsutse
visited Mr. Obeng in police cells and again told him to stick to that
account. “The police on duty had to go and sack him when he was seen
talking to the suspects in custody.”
Sources say on the day Elorm’s body was
discovered, the night police guard, Constable Wisdom Trabulsi
Agbemordzi, did not wait to handover to the day police guard as they had
often done. He left Mr. Ato Essien’s residence before the day security
guard arrived.
Nearly two months after the crime, the
two police officers have not been arrested. They are said to be
stationed at the Accra Central Police district.
Lawyer for Mr. Ato Essien, says his
client is worried about the slow pace of the investigation and had
petitioned the IGP and the Police service to among other things, arrest
the two police guards who were in charge of security in the house at the
time the crime was committed.
He said the pathologist had taken
samples of semen and other specimen for tests to be conducted to
conclude the autopsy but the police had said there were no chemicals in
the lab to conduct the test. Even though Mr. Essien was prepared to pay
for that test, it was not clear why that aspect of the investigation had
stalled.
Lawyers for the Oteng family, the
Fidelity Law Group, also petitioned the Criminal Investigations
Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to take over the
investigation from the Dansoman police. Managing Partner of the Fidelity
Law Group, among other things, cites basic investigative lapses as the
reason for the petition. He said it was strange that the police did not
arrest anybody or seize their phones when they visited the scene. He
told me the investigators did not secure the place as crime scene and
collect adequate forensic evidence.
Elorm’s uncle said the police did not even take the deceased’s mobile phone when the family voluntarily gave it to them.
When I contacted the Homicide Unit of
the CID Headquarters on Wednesday, senior police sources there said the
two police officers were supposed to have reported on Tuesday October
13, 2015, but due to communication lapses, they could not report.
“We are hoping that by tomorrow [Thursday October 15] or Friday [October ,16] we will get them,” the source said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment