The Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has assured that the killers of investigative journalist, Ahmed Suale, will surely face justice.
Addressing Parliament on various matters in response to some questions filed by some members of the House, the Attorney General said everything is being done to ensure that the killers of Ahmed Suale are arrested and prosecuted.
“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.“
Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame disclosed to Parliament that there have been extensive investigations conducted on the Ahmed Suale matter, some even beyond the shores of Ghana by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).
He revealed that 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.
He added that there were also some investigations into the said devices by the Department of Geomatic Engineering at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi.
The Attorney General also provided updates on high-profile murder cases including the murder of Ahmed Suale, Fennec Okyere, JB Danquah, Shadrack Arloo, Major Maxwell Mahama, and Prof. Benneh.
Length of Time of the Investigations
The Attorney-General expressed his sympathies with 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.
He cited the example of the murder of the legendary American rapper, Tupac Shakur, who was murdered in the mid-90s but whose murderer was established by the United States authorities only a few months ago.
“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 ensuring that the murderers of the late Ahmed Suale are found and brought to book. ”
Speculations about Motive for Murder
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 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 kinds of the public”.
He described the effort of Mr Alhassan Suhuyini of the NDC to suggest that the deceased was 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.
