My last visit to Jirapa was in 1997 on a field trip to the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College. Therefore, I have yet to see the new “Jirapa Dubai” called Royal Cozy Hills Hotel, Jirapa. But when you hear the detailed narration from Joy FM Super Morning Show’s ‘Quartet’ presenters Kojo Yankson, Mamavi Owusu Aboazi, Winston Amoah and Raymond Acquah, you feel like you’ve been there. In fact, visiting ‘Jirapad Dubai’ is on my agenda as one of the projects for my next trip to the Upper West region.
So, on Sunday, February 11, 2024, when I heard the shocking news of the alleged murder of Jirapa Dubai owner Eric Johnson, I asked myself why, why? Why should a businessman who has invested so much in bringing in his employees and people ask himself why he should do this? His hometown Jirapa goes to Ghana, and will the world meet such a fate?
investigation
Police have arrested seven people so far. However, as the investigation progresses, speculation is growing that the murder may be related to the chieftainship. He was the chief of Jirapa until the death of former IGP Peter Thenganaban Nanhuri. His replacement was acrimonious. Despite his successor taking office in 2023, the case remains in court as the aggrieved parties challenge it. Against this background, as the investigation progresses, suspicions of premeditated murder have emerged.
My November 2022 article titled “Evil Will Never Triumph” had the following passage:
Quote
“On the Food for Thought program on Thursday, November 17, 2022, Uncle Ebo White said that Ghana is full of good people, but those who do evil commit their evil deeds with impunity. He said they seem to be reluctantly joining evil people in order to escape. . He gave the example of driving a car or crawling in line while being passed by another person on the shoulder of the road.
He did not quote Shakespeare’s Mark Anthony:
“The evil that humans do lives on. Good things are often buried with the bones.”
But evil will not ultimately triumph, he said. Evil never wins! He illustrated his point with a rather sad story that took place in Kumasi in the 1960s.
The bank, which was incurring large losses due to default on loan repayments, decided to change its management. Upon arrival in Kumasi, the new bank manager diagnosed that the people who owed the most were the richest people who flaunted their wealth. He gave them an ultimatum: pay what they owed or be named and shamed. The defaulting rich people did everything they could to influence him. When that failed, they asked the headquarters in Accra to withdraw him.
The manager temporarily stayed in Kumasi, leaving his family behind in Accra. Therefore, he worked late into the night and headed to the bank’s guest house where he was staying. One morning, Kumasi woke up to the news that his bank manager had been murdered and his body set ablaze in his car. Rumors were circulating that the movie theater’s famous bouncer had perpetuated the crime on the three men. However, no one was arrested and no one was charged.
fast forward
More than 30 years later, as the bodyguard was slowly dying in hospital from an unknown illness, he made a confession similar to that made by Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth in the “sleepwalking” scene in Macbeth. . As she walked in her sleep, she said, “The smell of blood still lingers here. All the perfumes of Arabia cannot sweeten these little hands. Ah, ah, ah!”
The bouncer, who was contracted by three of Kumasi’s wealthiest men who were in debt to the bank, led a group of three young men to kill the branch manager on his way home from his office in the middle of the night. All three went insane before they died, he said. Three rich men die from a strange illness after their businesses fail and they are declared destitute. All their children had become drug addicts and beggars.
Uncle Ebo concluded that rich people, bodyguards, and assassins may all escape the law, but they do not escape natural justice. He further added that he said, “Evil never wins!”
analysis
During the height of the coups in 1979 and 1981, some people took the law into their own hands and murdered innocent people. In fact, there have been reports of people settling their personal scores by killing others.
Some are said to have died from strange illnesses, others to have gone insane, or both. For those who are still alive, like the killer of a bank manager in Kumasi, they may have escaped the law. But they can never escape natural justice. Even if they seem to be living a normal life, one may wonder how they sleep at night with blood on their hands and a clear conscience. ”
unquote
Considering the speculations of emirship regarding the killing of ‘Jirapa Dubai’, the question may arise: why humans have to kill their own people just for the sake of power? Perhaps I got the answer when I asked a colleague in Uganda why the equivalent of the Daily Graphic published headlines that screamed murder every day. He said;
“If people knew they could get away with murder, they would kill with impunity! But if they knew they would be killed for murder in order for the law to work, they would murder with impunity.” You won’t commit the crime!”
We can only hope that the perpetrators of Eric Johnson’s murder are brought to justice and that the image of “Jirapa Dubai” is restored.
The wealthy Kumasi people who committed the murders and their accomplices all died tragic deaths with eternal shame inflicted on their families.
The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. said in 1968, “The arc of the moral world may be long, but it still bends toward justice!”
Even if you run away from the law, natural justice will catch up with you, like in the case of the Kumasi bank branch manager murder case!!
Evil does not ultimately triumph. After all, evil never wins!
Leadership, lead by example! Ghanaians, wake up!
Brigadier General Dan Frimpong (Rtd)
Former representative director of African Peace Support Trainers Association
Nairobi, Kenya
Chair of the Board of Trustees Family Health University College;
Accra
[email protected]
Source: Brigadier General Dan Frimpong (Rtd)
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