Six individuals have been remanded in police custody by the Tema District Court in connection with the death of Charles Martey Odam in Adjumador, a town near Afienya in the Ningo-Prampram District of the Greater Accra Region.
The accused individuals, as reported by The Chronicles newspaper on May 18, 2023, are George Martey (67), a farmer; Nelson Anum Martey (59), a mechanic; Nii Marteye Martey Nathaniel (39), a businessman; Michael Martey Morrison (35), a businessman; Thomas Martey (34), a freelance writer; and Daniel Martey (35), a welder. All of them are residents of Adjumador.
During the court proceedings presided over by Her Ladyship Siran Mahama, the prosecutor presented a brief summary of the case. The complainant, Martey Samuel Mensah, is a building contractor, while the deceased, aged 70, was a pensioner who resided in an eight-bedroom self-contained house in Adjumador.
According to the report, the complainant, the accused individuals, and the deceased are all relatives of the Changha Martey Family in Adjumador, with the deceased serving as the family head. The report further stated that George Martey, one of the deceased’s brothers, had expressed dissatisfaction with his leadership of the family.
As a result, the accused individuals allegedly subjected the deceased to unfounded abuse and threats. The deceased shared a room with his 27-year-old daughter, Judith Merley Martey, who works as a pharmacy assistant.
The newspaper went on to narrate that on November 1, 2022, during the day, all the accused people, aside from Daniel Martey and the witnesses Elizabeth Tetteh and Samuel Narh, appeared before the Tema Community 8 Police regarding a plot of land that was the subject of an investigation involving the accused people and the witnesses.
At the time of investigation by the police of the Community 8 station, George Martey announced himself as the family head of the Changha Martey Family of Adjumador.
Elizabeth Tetteh, who is the witness in the case, disclosed that the deceased was rather the family head and not George Martey. This led to exchanges between them.
The police scheduled them for another meeting on November 4, 2022, for George to produce his family head, Charles Martey Odam, who is now deceased.
The newspaper chronicled the series of events that transpired leading to the killing and subsequent arrest of the six persons below:
On November 1, 2022, Michael Martey Morrison, in the afternoon, contacted the complainant on the phone and registered his displeasure about the family headship and demanded to have a meeting with the complainant and the deceased.
On November 2, 2022, at 1:00 am, the witness, Judith Martey, was awakened by a sound from a gunshot but did not know the actual direction from which the gun was fired.
She woke up around 4:00 am, the usual time she began her daily chores and prepared to take her son to school and continued to Afienya, her workplace.
On the same day, at about 11:00 am, Judith received a phone call from her uncle, Quarshie Isaac Martey, to the effect that masons working for her father (deceased) had gone to the house to work but were unable to find her father.
Both Judith and Isaac rushed home, opened the deceased’s door, and found his lifeless body by the side of his bed in a pool of blood.
A complaint was lodged, and investigations were initiated. Two spent cartridges were retrieved behind the deceased’s bedroom window.
Police preliminary investigation disclosed that the death of the deceased was a result of the dispute over who becomes the rightful person to be the head of the family.
Crime Scene experts who visited the scene picked fingerprints and other evidence which are yet to be matched with those of the suspects.