A High Court in Tema, in the Republic of Ghana, has granted GHS200,000 bail with one surety to Thomas Kwaku Oppong, a staff of Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), who is being charged for murder.
The court presided over by His Lordship Justice Emmanuel Ankamah directed the suspect to report to the investigator in the case on every Tuesday until otherwise directed.
The suspect is in the dock for allegedly gunning down a suspected land guards’ gang leader, Kwame Huzzey, at Shai Hills near Afienya, on May 13, 2020, at about 4:30pm.
Thomas Oppong, 37 and a Mechanical Technician with TOR, was charged for murder by police in Dodowa in the Shai Osudoku District of the Greater Accra Region.
He first appeared before the Ashaiman District Court presided over by His Worship Charles Boateng, where he was remanded into police custody.
It would recalled that energynewsafrica.com reported that Thomas Oppong allegedly engaged in a shootout with suspected land guards at the Green House Company Limited junction near Afienya.
That was when the suspected land guards, numbering about 20, allegedly stormed Thomas Oppong’s residence and attacked him and fired gun shots apparently to kill him but he managed to escape.
He allegedly grabbed his licensed pump action gun and fired back, killing the leader in the process.
Sources within the suspect’s family told energynewsafrica.com that Thomas Oppong had been in dispute with the owner of DBS Roofing Sheet Company over the land on which the suspect’s house is situated.
The police, in a statement issued earlier and intercepted by this portal, said their preliminary investigation revealed that the Green House Ghana Ltd, where the deceased was an employee, had a land dispute with suspect Thomas Kwaku Oppong for some time.
The statement continued that the deceased, on 13th May, 2020, went to the disputed land to inspect the company’s ongoing projects where he was alleged to have been shot by the suspect.
However, the police, in a statement of facts presented at the Ashaiman District Court, did not touch on the fact that there was a dispute between the suspect and DBS Roofing Sheet Company over a plot of land but rather said the deceased, which the police claimed worked with Green House Estate Company, went to deliver a message from his boss to the suspect, and without provocation, the suspect went into his room, picked up his gunned down the deceased, Kwame Huzzey.
Below is the first statement the police issued.
ALLEGED MURDER AT SHAI HILL’S
The Dodowa Divisional CID is investigating a case in which suspect Thomas Kwaku Oppong is alleged to have shot and killed Kwame Huzzey on 13th May, 2020 at Shai- Hills, opposite Green House Company Ltd.
The deceased was a security guard with Green House Company Ltd a company under One District One Factory at Shai- Hills, Afenya.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the Green House Company Ltd where the deceased was working has a land dispute with suspect Thomas Kwaku Oppong for some time now.
The deceased on 13th May, 2020 had gone to the disputed land to inspect the company’s ongoing projects where he is alleged to have been shot by the suspect.
The deceased was rushed to the Tema General Hospital where he was pronounced dead. The body has been deposited in the hospital ‘s morgue for autopsy.
Police retrieved 1 pump action gun, 6 live cartridges 2 spent cartridges and a short gun from the crime scene.
Suspect Thomas Kwaku Oppong is in Police custody assisting with investigations.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com