Suspected police killing: KONONGO DEATH CANNOT  BE NATURAL … Prof Badu Akosa tells court

The renowned Ghanaian Pathologist, Prof Badu Akosa, has told the Asokwa Magistrate Court that the late Kofi Ampoma, who was allegedly manhandled by police personnel from the Konongo Divisional Police Command, died of un-natural causes.

Pro Akosa was emphatic that external circumstances led to the death of the late Kofi Ampoma. At a cross examination by counsel of the bereaved family, Mr Asamoah Amoako, on a post-mortem report submitted to the court, Prof Akosa  asserted that the report by Dr. Ernest Boakye, a Pathologist at the  Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), who performed the maiden post-mortem, cannot, to him be the true reflection of what led to the death.

According to him, the body of the Adomfe royal had multiple injuries and straight edge lacerations. He told the court, presided over by Her Worship Rose Mary Asante, that the injuries on the body of the deceased (Kofi Ampoma) could not come from a blunt object, it could only come from a sharp edged instrument.

Prof Akosa revealed that the body of the late Kofi Ampoma had been cut and had multiple bruises.

Contrary to the report by Dr. Ernest Boakye of KATH that the bruises on the body of the late Kofi Ampoma came as result of the post-mortem, Badu Akosa argued that normally, post-mortem does not give bruises, but when the body is embalmed, chemicals are added to the body, so where there is blood the place goes darker.

In a post court interview with The Chronicle, Prof Agyeman Badu Akosa said you can see the black areas compared to the other side of the body; if it is post-mortem, then the whole body should be like that, but other parts of the body cannot be dark as the areas where the bruises are, so it cannot be post-mortem.

He stated: “Something happened to this person. If you say natural death then you just die or you are sick, and we know the sickness that has caused death, then we know it is natural. If it is un-natural, then it means something – an external circumstance led to the death of this young man; and I am saying external circumstances have led to the death of the late Kofi Ampoma.”

According to him, the kidney is normally firm and almost like blood red. If you put formalin, it gets even harder, but the liver of the late Ampoma was doughy; it is like you are making dough and it is pale, which means it has lost a lot of blood, so that is a major finding.

Prof Akosa also dismissed claims from some quarters that Ampoma might have died as a result of hypertension. “If you have hypertension, the surface of the kidney is dotted, which he medically named as “Granular,” but this kidney is smooth like the baby’s bottom, so it cannot be manifest signs of hypertension.

On the challenge by Dr. Ernest Boakye as to if Prof Akosa used histology in his post-mortem, the latter explained that histology is done when someone is in doubt about his work. “If I am not in doubt, I do not need to do histology.

He said: “I have done enough autopsies in this world not to do histology or anything. He is a young up and coming pathologist. I can understand. As far as I am concerned, I have been forty years in pathology. I understand pathology enough not to do histology or everything.”

He continued that the kidney, liver and the multiple injuries confirm that Kofi Ampoma cannot die just like that, adding he does not know where the deceased got the injuries from.

“The history says he was butchered by police, but that is not my issue. My issue is that I have evidence to prove that the death was un-natural,” he said, adding that “my colleague said the death is natural so he has to prove. Meanwhile he has listed all the lacerations, and he did not comment on the lacerations on the end of his autopsy.”

The case has been adjourned to August 12, 2020, when Dr. Ernest Boakye will cross examine Prof Badu Akosa on his report, which has been submitted to court.

On his part, counsel for the family, Lawyer Asamoah Amoako, told this paper that the examination by Prof Badu Akosa was done free of charge, without him taking a pesewa from the bereaved family.

He noted that because of the cutlass injury found on the body of their royal, he bled profusely, but the kidneys, lungs and liver were all normal, and the heart weighed at 400 grammes, and looking at this, it could not be he suffered from hypertension, which is totally out of place.

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