The 54-year-old poacher accused of killing a forest guard in the Kakum National Park in the Central Region has been remanded into police custody after he was arraigned at the Nyankumasi Ahenkro District Court.
His plea was not taken on his first day in court. A resident of Assin Betwease in the Assin South District, John Mensah has been charged with two counts of murder and unauthorised entry into a protected forest area.
The prosecution told the court that the case was still under investigation and requested more time. The presiding judge, Peter Anongdare, subsequently ordered Mensah to remain in police custody for 14 days. He is to return to court on September 11, 2026.
The incident happened at about 6pm on Friday, August 21, 2026, while forest guards were conducting a routine patrol to check illegal activities in the Kakum National Park. The patrol team reportedly came across signs of a route being used by suspected poachers.
The guards were said to have taken strategic positions in the forest after hearing gunshots believed to have come from the direction of the suspected poaching activity. The following morning, at approximately 5:15am, two lights were seen moving towards the team. The guards, according to the Forestry Commission's official situational report, prepared to apprehend the persons and ordered them to surrender. The suspects, however, reportedly bolted into the forest in separate directions.
According to the Commission, one of them abandoned a sack before turning back and firing at Richard Otwey, the forest guard who was pursuing him. The forest guard was hit by the gunfire and died at the scene.
Mensah was subsequently arrested and, during questioning, allegedly named Bukari Abudu, also from Assin Betwease, as the person who fired the shot. Abudu has not yet been arrested, and the police, in collaboration with the Forestry Commission, were continuing efforts to locate him.
Investigators who searched the area after the shooting retrieved two single-barrel guns suspected to have been carried by the two men. They also found the remains of animals believed to have been killed by the suspected poachers, including five brush-tailed porcupines, two African giant rats, a Maxwell duiker, a snail, two Mona monkeys and an olive colobus monkey. Other items found at the location included two machetes, a cooking pot, two sachets of tomato paste and a bottle of water, suggesting the suspects may have spent considerable time in the forest.
The incident was reported to the Nyankumasi Police, after which officers, accompanied by the Park Manager and other Forestry Commission officials, entered the park to retrieve the body. Otwey's remains have since been deposited at the Abura Dunkwa Government Hospital mortuary.
