The Attorney-General's Department has advised the police to drop murder
charges against the operators of Eusbett Hotel Limited in Sunyani, Mr. Samuel
Owusu Bennett and Mrs. Eunice Bennett and two others, in relation to the death
of a former security guard of the Hotel, Nicholas Nuoliebe, for lack of
sufficient evidence.
The Proprietor of Eusbett Hotel, Mr. Samuel Owusu Bennett and his Executive
Director, Mrs. Eunice Bennett, Adama Issah and Abdulai Nubenur, both security
guards of the hotel, were held as suspects in an alleged murder case of a
50-year-old Nuoliebe whose corpse was found floating in the swimming pool at
the hotel on Sunday morning, April19 2009.
Nuoliebe was found dead in a pool at the hotel about four months ago. The
police found a drinking glass containing a whitish substance believed to be
poison on a table close to the pool where Nuoliebe's corpse was found floating.
However, post-mortem on the dead body revealed that the deceased was
electrocuted.
The police's investigations into the issue of electrocution to ascertain
whether the deceased was working on any electrical gadget at the time of his
death, revealed that Nuoliebe, who was employed as a room attendant and later
moved to security department, had no knowledge about electrical operation and
as such was not tasked to perform duties relating to disconnection or
connection of electrical gadgets at the hotel. Neither was he working with any
electrical gadget at the time of his death, the investigation further revealed.
After conducting relevant investigations, the police sent the docket to the
A-G's office for a thorough study and advice, The Chronicle gathered.
Pieces of information gathered by The Chronicle indicate that the police,
having concluded their relevant investigations, could not find sufficient
evidence to sustain a murder charge against the suspects, and had consequently
been advised by the A-G's Department not to only drop the murder charges but
also close the docket on the case.
“The evidence available is insufficient to sustain a charge of murder
against the suspects. Hence drop the charges of murder against the 1st suspect,
Adama Issah, 2nd suspect Abdulai Nubenur, 3rd suspect, Samuel Owusu Bennett and
4th suspect, Eunice Bennett. Further to the above we also advice that having
completed all the relevant investigations and this docket should formally be
closed and treated as such”, the AG advised the police.
When reached, Mr. Bennett noted that though the news was a welcome one, he
was disturbed about the damage that the incident, which was widely reported in
the media, had caused his hard won reputation.
He disclosed that as part of measures to beef up security in and around the
hotel premises, sixteen security cameras had been fitted, especially at very
sensitive areas to monitor and record various activities being undertaken at
the hotel.
SUMMARY,
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS OF THE GHANAIAN CHRONICLE NEWSPAPER REPORT ON THE
EUSBETT HOTEL MURDER CASE
After carefully perusing the newspaper report, it was found
out that the main actors in the murder case were Mr Sam Benette(Proprietor) and
Mrs Eunice Benette(Executive Director), Adama Isssah and Abdulai Nubenur – held
as suspects for the alleged murder of the former security guard. The proprietor
and his wife’s name were roped into the case.
Now, lets leave the Proprietor and the wife out , and address substantive issue. We will
come to that later. There are a lot of workers in the hotel performing diverse
functions. We can’t assume that the two security workers were the only workers
present discharging hotel functions and activities at the time the incident
happened. No, Never. There must surely be other workers involved and around
then when the incident happened. Or were those the only workers in the hotel on
that faithful day?. If they are not, the question is why will the Police hold
Adama and Abdulai as the only suspects in the case, when the other workers were
there and were also culpable? Or could this be ascribed to their region of origin because they both
bear names which makes one believe they are natives from Northern GHANA or
Northerners to be precise. There must be something more to this. Are the two
suspects simply an acquintances or were they in some form of intimate
relationship with the deceased? Or is it just because the two suspects happens
to find themselves in the same department as the deceased?. There should definitely be a reason for the
Police to hold those as suspects on the case. Find out from Police source for
PRP
It was deduced that the victim, Nicholas Nuoliebe, was first
appointed as a ROOM ATTENDANT
and later sent to the SECURITY
DEPARTMENT
It was realized that the deceased was found dead floating in
the swimming pool on Sunday morning and the Police found a drinking glass
containing a whitish substance believed to be poison on a table close to the
pool. The newspaper report did not say whether or not the Police investigation
confirmed the whitish substance in the drinking glass was poison. In fact, It
didn’t say a word about whether or not that whitish substance was really
investigated and later confirmed to be poison. But the BIG QUESTION REMAINS HOW DID THE BODY CAME FLOATING ON THE SURFACE OF
THE POOL DEAD. Was the mastermind internally or externally orchestrated? Or
could the deceased have electrocuted himself to death and why? All these
questions and concerns are not fully explored in the report and in the
investigation. The Police were quite lousy in their investigations, I believe.
They only managed to say they don’t have sufficient evidence to sustain a
charge against the suspects after just doing a lazy work. What else could have
been done to find more sufficient evidence during investigations? Does that
possibility exist at all? If they did, why wasn’t that fully explored? They
could have done more to get to the bottom of the matter. I am not inferring that the proprietor and the
rest of the suspects are guilty of the offence. What I mean is a lot more could
have been done about seeking hard evidence for prosecution. Murder is a first
degree criminal offence and much could have been done to unravel the mystery
surrounding the case, to apprehend culprits and punish them after being tried
by a competent law court to serve as deterrent to others. It appears many killings including contract killings have gone on in recent past without the Police having sufficient evidence to find suspects and prosecute them accordingly as the law requires. How long must we wait to let this phenomenon develop in society. How would the families of these deceased feel?.
A post – mortem report on the deceased indicated that he
died from electrocution and the Police tried to establish whether he might have
been working on an electrical gadgets, probably doing connections and
disconnections but there was no such clue. It rather revealed that the deceased
wasn’t an electrician to work as such, so he wasn’t appointed to be working as
an electrician in the hotel. Additionally, no clear - cut connection was
concretely established between the post mortem report which suggested the man was
electrocuted and the whitish substance which was found in
the drinking glass. Or were the murderers trying to play a smart one, on would
– be – investigators on the case, to possibly drive their mind away from what
could stand out later or surface as a leading evidence in the case.
Peradventure, this explains why the whitish substance was placed in the glass
on the table near the pool, ostensibly to cleverly outwit the investigators so
they would never find any link to an evidence or to take their minds far away from what could lead them to a clue or a hard evidence.
What of looking at it from another angle, from someone
abetting to crime and acting externally with an insider(a staff within) to
carry out this heinous and diabolic plot? Was that possibility also fully
investigated? It appears the Police didn’t do much work on this either. This
could remain a possible lead to a hard evidence. Couldn’t it? Enough of what the
Police couldn’t do for a hard evidence. I can’t also pretend to know all about
their investigation procedure.
PUBLIC RELATION
PERSPECTIVES ON THE EUSBETT HOTEL MURDER CASE
From the analyses above, I can say without any sense of
doubt that there’s such a mystery surrounding the death. If there's such a mystery surrounding the death, why would someone just point an accusing finger on officials of the hotel? And allow the appropriate authorities do their investigation to unravel that mystery? Instead of concluding that so and so is responsible and ought to be blamed? In order to find
leading evidence which could help in finding answers to the question - who
killed Nuoliebe?. This makes it very difficult to evolve strategies that
directly defines a clear PR policy guideline on how such a criminality could be curtailed. Because
one is not sure if the incident was internally, or externally orchestrated. In
this regard, the right advice would be to formulate a comprehensive policy
which covers and tames all possible causes of such crime in future.
It also brings to mind the need for the principle of LOYALTY and HONESTY among staff. Sharing
accurate and timely information regularly among staff will play a critical role
in this process. Workers will have to be truthful, honest and loyal to the
course and ideals of the organization, and particularly during such trying
times. They should be forth-coming with the needed information that aids
investigations during such tragic and crucial moments.
You will realize that the lack of honesty and loyalty among the staff were noticed
by the proprietor as missing ingredients when the story broke and that is seen
in the last paragraph of the newspaper report which said “
the proprietor of the three-star hotel entreated his staff to tell
whoever might be concerned about anything that would happen in the hotel the
truth of the matter to avoid unnecessary speculations and falsehood”. He surely
suspects someone in the hotel to know something about the matter but the fellow
seems to be hiding certain truth.
PR SUGGESTION AND
RECOMMENDATION ON CASE
Building a team of
loyal and honest staff members; answering the critical question of how the
story got to the media.
Building and
Repairing Damaged Reputation; Communicating through best medium( by releasing
news accounts to radio outlets, newspapers/newsletters about the fenced
swimming pool. This will go a long way to erase the negative perception
people have about the hotel or might have been created from the sad murder
story. It will ensure that the right image is redeemed for the organization,
while repairing its damaged reputation. Communication should be done without
initial reference to Nicholas Nuoliebe’s murder case with pictures showing the
fencing on the swimming pool.
Minors or children
not permitted/allowed to swim notices pasted on fencing round the pool.
Swimming reserved for adults only on Specific hours/period during the day
allowed for swimming. This would help minimize risk factors.
Developing a
worker/staff check – in/check - out form/sheet to report every activity of
worker/s who close from work, go home and then returns again to the hotel to
check on any other thing on the same day. This check – in /check - out form
will help monitor the movement of individual workers in and around the
facility. Such sheet should have important details, the time(ie. check – in and
check – out time of any one of the workers), reason/purposes of that person returning
to the work place at that particular moment, and the signature of the worker in
question as well as the form keeper. This is a carefully thought – out plan
which attacks crime in two ways: First, it can help prevent murder as it in a
way checks the movement/activities of workers, in a given time, particularly, workers
who have closed from work or may be on – leave but decide to sneak into the
hotel for one or two things. It may happened that in between the time the
worker sneaks – in and the time he leaves, some secret evil, a scheme or a plot
could be hatched to carry out a diabolic plan. Secondly, it can assist the
Police to seek for hard evidence when a crime occurs or may lead to a possible
clue to the murder/mysterious undertakings of criminal dimension. Now whoever,
knew something about the case and yet had failed to release timely information
to appropriate authorities may think afterwards, that he/she had succeeded in
outwitting those investigators and authorities in the organization. For not
coming out with vital information when it mattered most or there was no
mechanism in place to thoroughly and painstakingly push such a fellow forward
to release information which goes to help unravel/unmask the personalities
surrounding the mystery murder. For such a person who could have released the
information and yet had failed to do that, he/she might say he had won the
battle, a free man, still walking around free because he had escaped been roped
in a useless case as a suspect or a possible witness. Someone will also be made
to ensure that whatever the snap check is about, will be duely followed. The
philosophy behind this plan is to check situation where crime could be
internally and externally orchestrated in an extreme sense.
Back to the issue of the proprietor and his wife. How can they be held responsible or blamed for what happened when there's lack of sufficient evidence on the matter to prosecute them?. When it had also not been fully established whether the crime was internally or externally orchestrated or both. How on earth could they be linked if such clues had not been fully established. It's, however, very important to talk about this if the incident really happened in the hotel, as the media reports that it did.