The principal suspect in the trial for the murder of the MP for Abuakwa North, J.B Danquah-Adu, is mentally unstable, a defense lawyer claims.

Daniel Asiedu on Wednesday told an Accra District Court that he and the other suspect were contracted by some members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to kill the lawmaker.

Nicknamed “Sexy Dondon”,  Asiedu told the Court presided over by Her Worship Arit Nsemoh that his “contractors” told him to indict certain persons in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) instead of the NPP.

Aseidu in a 20-minute confession told the court that his contractors who are members of the ruling party told him to accuse the NDC of the crime after he had carried it out. He also indicated to the court that after he committed the crime, his arrest by the Police was staged just to cover up for his actual privies. Another twist to the confession was that, the first accused person told the court that at the appropriate time, he will mention the names of the persons who contracted him to commit the crime of murder.

The second accused person, Vincent Bosso, after the confession of the first accused person took his turn. He told the court that now that the first accused person has confessed, he ought to be released from custody because he knows nothing about the entire case. His involvement in the ongoing committal proceedings is a breach of his fundamental human rights, the second accused told the court.

However, the lawyer defending the duo Yaw Obuor has said his lead client has mental illness hence such startling revelations.

“I’ve said it that he has a mental problem,” Mr. Obuor stressed in an interview with Accra-based Joy FM.

It will be recalled that in March 2016 the counsel requested for a mental examination on his client after his first conference with him, but the court declined.

Asiedu was arrested in 2016 after he was alleged to have stabbed the late MP with a knife leading to his death at his residence in Accra. The lawmaker was killed on February 9, 2016 in his room at his Shiashie residence.

Background

The facts, as presented by the prosecution, are that on February 8, 2016, Asiedu and Bosso decided to embark on a robbery operation at Shiashie, a suburb of East Legon, where the MP resided.

Asiedu selected the MP’s house, but Bosso disagreed and decided to abandon the robbery operation.

About 11:40 p.m., the MP arrived home and went to bed in a room located on the first floor of his house.

About 1 a.m. that same night, Asiedu, armed with a catapult, a cutter and a sharp knife, went to the legislator’s house. He entered the house by scaling the wall on the blind side of a security man who was fast asleep.

On entering the house, Asiedu climbed onto a porch on the top floor with a ladder and entered the MP’s bedroom through a window.

While Asiedu was searching the room, the MP woke up and held him. There ensued a struggle, during which Asiedu stabbed the MP in the right chest above the breast. Asiedu also sustained various injuries in his palm and chest.

The legislator fell by his bed, bleeding profusely, after which Asiedu stabbed him several times on the right chest and neck.

On realising that the MP was dying, Asiedu left the room and took with him three iPhones.

Meanwhile, the struggle between the MP and Asiedu drew the attention of the security man in the house who alerted others in the neighbourhood.

Asiedu, however, managed to descend; he jumped over the electric fencing on the walls of the house into an adjoining house and escaped.

Asiedu then took the phones to a phone repairer to decode them, but the repairer saw bloodstains and the pictures of the MP on the phones and alerted the police.