Two suspects are in the grips of the Northern Regional Police Command for the murder of the Head Pastor of the End Times Believers Fellowship in Tamale, Pastor Ebenezer Ocran.
Kwame Dogyi, 28, and Obio Akwasi, 21, are both third year Electrical Engineering students at the Tamale Technical University in the Northern Region.
The two, according to the Northern Regional Police Commander DCOP Mr Patrick Sarpong, have confessed to committing the crime.
On November 10, 2017, at about 3pm, the Northern Police Command had information that a Toyota Highlander vehicle had been sent to the Tamale Industrial Area for re-spraying and onward sale at a cost of GHS 20, 000.00.
Detectives were therefore dispatched to the area and the vehicle was located in the custody of a mechanic.
The investigation team, DCOP Mr Patrick Sarpong revealed, “feigned interest in buying the car and requested for a test driving. They drove the vehicle to the police headquarters where it was kept, while communication with the supposed owner begun on a telephone number he left with the mechanic”.
At about 10pm, Ben Asamoah, a junior pastor at the End Time Believers found the lifeless body of the deceased at Kumbiyili near Malshegu where he had gone on a visit. He also found out that the deceased’s Toyota Highlander with registration number GN 1763-14 was not in the house, and therefore suspected that the murderers might have stolen it.
He reported the incident to the police, which gave more clue to them that the vehicle in their custody may belong to the deceased.
“In the morning of November 11, 2017, the supposed owner and seller of the vehicle called the policeman who had feigned interest to buy the vehicle to remove the carrier and the number plate before test-driving the vehicle in Tamale. This was done and communication went on between them,” DCOP Sarpong said.
Police investigations revealed one of the suspects, Kwame Dogyi, lives in his late uncle’s house where the deceased Pastor Ebenezer Ocran, aged 64, and a native of Takoradi in the Western Region was a tenant.
The pastor was in his room preparing for a sermon that evening when the suspects entered and stabbed him several times with a knife. In the course of the struggling, Kwame Dogyi was also stabbed on the left rib by the same knife. The suspects continued the attack with a pestle and finally got the pastor killed after which they stole his car, his Samsung mobile phone, and GHS200.00, the police commander said.
The two suspects were arrested on the campus of the Tamale Technical University where they had agreed with the undercover police officer to receive payment for the stolen vehicle on Sunday.
The body of the deceased has since been deposited at the Tamale Teaching Hospital Morgue.
They would be processed for court on Tuesday, November 14, 2017 to be charged provisionally with murder.
By Zubaida Ismail |3news.com | Ghana