The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame has given assurances that his office will facilitate processes to bring murderers of investigative journalist Ahmed Suale to justice.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, February 20, Mr Yeboah Dame indicated that though investigations were ongoing, no identifiable suspects have been accosted yet.
The Minister also provided updates on other high profile murder cases including the murder of Fennec Okyere, JB Danquah, Shadrack Arloo, Major Maxwell Mahama, and Prof. Benneh.
“Pursuant to further request for information on the state of investigation, a second investigation docket was received by my Office in 2023. The docket indicated that investigations into the case are still ongoing, and the identities of the perpetrators were still outstanding. No identifiable suspects have been found yet.”
The Attorney-General asserted that there have been extensive investigations conducted on the Ahmed Suale matter, with some extending beyond the shores of Ghana by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). The United States Government was contacted through the American Embassy in Accra to undertake a forensic examination of some devices which were used by the deceased before his gruesome murder.
There were also some investigations into the said devices by the Department of Geomatic Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi.
The Attorney-General expressed his sympathies to the family of the late Ahmed Suale on the length of time taken for the investigations so far but indicated that some murder cases indeed take time to resolve.
Likening the situation to the murder case of US rapper, Tupac Shakur, whose murderer was identified a few months ago, Mr Yeboah Dame said he was confident perpetrators of the murder of Suale would be brought to book.
“Just like the murderer of the late Tupac Shakur, justice will surely catch up with the murderers of Ahmed Suale. Mr. Speaker, indeed, the government is fully committed to ensure that the murderers of the late Ahmed Suale are found and brought to book,” he told legislators in the house.
Mr Dame added that the public ought to curb the speculations as to the motive for the murder, as the motive may not even be connected to the work the deceased did as an investigative journalist before his murder.
This generated a follow up question by the Member of Parliament for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini, who wondered the basis for that statement by the Attorney-General.
The Attorney-General responded that motives for a murder could only be established through investigations and that speculating on the motive without any basis not only had the real tendency to undermine the soundness of the investigations by the CID of the Ghana Police Service but also unnecessarily prejudice the minds of the public about the case.
He added that speculations that the late investigative journalist was murdered as a result of his work “are very dangerous, undermines the integrity of investigations by the police and could also prejudice the minds of the public”.
He described the suggestion by Mr. Alhassan Suhuyini of the NDC that the deceased was definitely murdered for his work as an investigative journalist as “propagandist”.
The Attorney-General cited the murder of Fennec Okyere, who was predominantly known in music circles as the manager of renowned musician, Kwaw Kesse. He indicated that, as he had reported to Parliament, investigations showed that Fennec Okyere was involved in many land disputes, and therefore, we ought to be careful with a suggestion that Fennec was murdered for his work as a music manager.