Pastor's killers confess in court

Friday, January 15, 2010 (Page 3 Lead)

FOUR alleged robbers yesterday stunned the Accra Circuit Court when they confessed to have committed a series of robberies leading to the death of a pastor of the Lighthouse Chapel International, Rev Peter Nii Addy.
Reverend Addy, 26, who was the pastor in charge of the Enchi branch of the Lighthouse Chapel, was in Accra with his wife, who was six months pregnant, to attend the wedding of a colleague pastor and was due to return to his base in the Western Region on December 30, 2009 but met his brutal death at the hands of the robbers.
The accused persons — Yaw Asamoah, 30; Kofi Yeboah, 30; Ebo Kwabena, 30, and Osei Prempeh, 23 — pleaded for forgiveness from God, Ghanaians, their victims and the family of the deceased pastor.
The four, whose pleas have not been taken, are also before another circuit court charged with the murder of Rev. Addy.
The four were charged with seven counts of conspiracy, causing unlawful harm and robbery but they ended up confessing to committing murder.
The court, presided over by Mrs Patience Mills-Tetteh, remanded them in prison custody to re-appear on January 21, 2010.
The accused persons told the court that they did not want to waste its time with a long trial.
In November and December 2009, the accused robbed several households in Accra, assaulted occupants and made away with valuable items and cash.
They, accordingly, pleaded with the court to punish them severely.
According to them, they did not deserve to live because they had caused so much havoc on the victims and their family members and for that reason they were ready to face any form of punishment the court might deem fit.
The confessions began when the prosecutor in the case, Inspector Anthony Afetsi, read out the charges preferred against the accused persons and the facts accompanying those charges.
Inspector Afetsi had barely sat down when Yeboah raised his hand and informed the court that he had something to say.
The court allowed him to speak and, to everyone's surprise, he launched into confession and admitted committing robbery with the others.
The other accused persons followed suit with similar confessions.
The facts of the case accompanying the three separate charge sheets preferred against the accused persons indicated that they broke into the home of a banker around 5 a.m. on November 30, 2009 and took away the banker's pump action gun, a box full of cartridges, a car key, cellular phones, a laptop and GH¢70.
According to the prosecution, the four on a later date proceeded to a house at Gbawe, attacked the inhabitants and eventually killed Rev Addy with the pump action gun they had forcibly taken from the banker's home and bolted.
The four were also said to have forcibly entered the house of an auto mechanic, held his family hostage and robbed them of four cellular phones, a machine detector and GH¢160 and subjected the inhabitants of the house to severe beatings.
In the third case, the four were said to have attacked a house at Donkuna, a suburb of Accra, and robbed the household of five cellular phones and GH¢1,700 cash and shot a young man in the leg.
The four were arrested upon a tip-off on January 6, 2010 when they were preparing to embark on another operation.