Four people have been remanded and provisionally charged with the “murder” of the University of Ghana lecturer Professor Emmanuel Yaw Benneh.
The law lecturer was found dead at his home in East Legon over the weekend, bound, with his hands and legs tied up.
The police subsequently picked up four suspects, all of whom were workers at the slain man’s house. They are Christian Pobee (cleaner), Isaac Botchwey (houseboy), James Nana Womba (cleaner) and Adams Mensah Mansur (gardener).
All the suspects have been remanded by the Kaneshie District Court and are scheduled to reappear in court on 30 September.
Violate rights
All four suspects pleaded not guilty when they appeared before the court, presided over by Eleanor Kakra Barnes Botchway.
Inspector Ebenezer Teye-Okuffo, the prosecutor, asked the court to remand the suspects in order to allow the police to conduct further investigations.
Robert Esuman, defence lawyer, appealed for bail for two of the accused, insisting the facts did not establish elements of murder against his clients.
He regretted the death of Professor Benneh, however, describing his passing as a great loss to the legal fraternity and the country as a whole.
“The voice of justice is loud crying for the culprits to be dealt with in accordance with law. But in an attempt to achieve this end, there is the need for a thorough investigation in order not to violate the rights of innocent souls such as my clients,” Esuman said.
Bail denied
He requested that the court grant his clients bail, saying they were innocent until proven guilty.
Essuman argued that they had worked for Benneh for 26 years and had become like family to him.
His bail request, however, was opposed by the prosecution, who said that the police were “yet to take a court order to go into their phones” (meaning the accused).
He said the police still had certain checks to make, to do with the telecommunications network operators that the accused persons had subscribed to.
The presiding judge, however, denied the bail request, saying the court had no jurisdiction to grant the accused bail.
E A Alanore
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