Missing Akatsi Okada Rider Murdered

…Suspected bones, skull retrieved, but residents cast doubt

Even before a forensic laboratory examination could be conducted on retrieved human skeletal parts, believed to be the remains of a 28-year-old motor rider, who went missing on April 21, this year at Akatsi, in the Volta Region, residents say the recovered bones cannot be those of the slain motor rider.

Even though the suspects, including an 18-year-old girl, who are currently in the grip of the Akatsi South Police Command, have allegedly confessed to murdering the motor rider, the townsfolk insist his body could not have decomposed so quickly to the bones retrieved.

Louis Agbogli, a native of Atidzive, within the Akatsi South Municipality of the Volta Region, reportedly went missing after he was seen picking a female pillion rider on Friday, April 21, from Akatsi to the Kpetoe area.

Chief Superintendent Isaac Baah, the Akatsi South Municipal police commander, briefing the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on developments relating to the incident, said on Thursday, April 27, Mr.Lumor Agbogli, the father of the deceased, made a complaint to the police about the disappearance of his son.

Mr.Baah said, in their preliminary investigations, the police said the suspect, Regina Dagba, an 18-year-old girl from Asafotsi-Dagbakope, a village within Akatsi South, on Thursday, April 20, sought the service of a motor rider, ostensibly to pick her to Adetsewui, where she was to meet her boyfriend.

He said the charge for the transportation of the suspect could not meet her financial status at that time, “so the deceased willingly added GH₵3.00 to help aid her departure to the village.”

Mr.Baah said the suspect, after taking the deceased’s contact, called him the next day to offer gratitude for his assistance, and asked him to pick her to Kpetoe, which he obliged, “even though his colleague riders discouraged him from offering that service.”

“Upon reaching Kpetoe, the suspect appealed to the deceased to take her to a village called Nyatsive, where the deceased had since not returned, causing fear and panic among his relations and friends,” he said.

Mr.Baah further disclosed that the suspect, together with Etse Datsomor, her 20-year-old boyfriend from Adetsewui, was lured from his hideout at Nyatsive in the Republic of Togo, and arrested around the Wute stretch of the Akatsi- Ziope road on Monday, May 15, where they both admitted to having murdered the victim after interrogation.

According to the police chief, after they had obtained a court order, Etse led a team of both police officers from Ghana and Togo to a gravel pit site, located between Kpetoe and Nyatsive, near Togo, where the bones and a skull were retrieved.

The suspect with the bones and skull

He said, “Suspect pointed the scene to the police and after a careful inspection, it was found that the body had decomposed, leaving behind only the bones and skull.”

Police sources revealed that the suspect also led the police team to a nearby bush to retrieve the deceased’s motorbike, which was close to where he was allegedly murdered.

Mr.Baah said efforts were underway to forward the bones to Accra for a forensic laboratory examination, while the suspects would reappear in court on Friday, June 2, 2023.

Source: Anchorghana.com