UNDERSTANDING CONTRACT KILLINGS

My senior colleague, Kofi Akordor, almost took the wind out of my sail with his piece on this subject of contract killings which seem to be engulfing our otherwise peaceful country and shaking consciences. Be that as it may, it is necessary that I also let go this piece to offer some sociological touches to the stormy argument on the subject.
In fact, following the recent barbaric killings, particularly of journalist Samuel Ennin in Kumasi and Mr Rokko Frimpong, a top GCB official in Tema, Ghanaians have tended to associate these dastardly acts and probably others which did not attract much public cognisance with contract killings. This has led to lots of noise being bandied about and the debate seems not to be abating once no clues have been found to arrest the culprits or prevent them from committing their outrageous crimes.
Joined in this unfortunate debate are serial callers to various phone-in programmes on the FM stations who have assumed the title social commentators and some politicians, as well, all of whom are trying to score points from this monstrous model.
Is contract killing a new term which is creeping into the lexicon of Ghanaian media practitioners or the entire Ghanaian public? Is it just that we have been oblivious of a practice which might have been with us for sometime without us recognising it until now because of its magnitude or media reportage?
So far as there are no statistics or figures to buttress this definition, it will not be out of place to say that this seeming crime is rarely known. But should we keep mute and look on unconcerned as a nation?
We need to be careful in analysing this serious issue so that we do not take for granted what gained currency in our country in 2000 as the serial killing of women and also the shrinking of sex organs (mostly relating to males). The latter phenomenon after all, was peripatetic as it transcended the boarders of this country. How about the ritual killings and all that?
A contract killing (also contract murder or murder-for-hire) has been defined as a murder in which a killer is hired by another person to murder for material reward, usually money. These killers are sometimes known as contract killers, hit men (sometimes hitmen), or assassins.
In some advanced countries, and with the advancement in information and communication technology (ICT), some web-sites have even been created by people advertising themselves as hit killers or assassins.
In most countries with judicial systems such as ours, a contract to kill a person is unenforceable by law, since the customer cannot sue for specific performance likewise the contract killer, to sue for his pay. So it is like the cliché “man pass man” doing business.
However, when caught both can be found guilty of homicide.
It is my candid opinion that this model of killing is not new to Ghana. It has, actually, existed since history can tell us except that it is now assuming such magnitude with the advent of media pluralism and probably globalisation.
We are being exposed to the magnitude that we are all witnessing because of our free and pluralistic media environment in which nothing happens without being heard on the radio stations or in the press. If you remember the impact of the media, particularly radio, during the last two general elections, then you understand the point I am trying to drive at.
As a result of increased and improved communication and our being part of the global village, we have become associated with a faster news dissemination and reception. Therefore, foreign action-packed and Mafia-like films and lately, films from neighbouring countries have been storehouses to this practice.
Contract killing appeals to some criminals partially because it can be used to establish an "airtight" alibi for the person who takes out the contract.
The person who actually commits the murder may have little or no direct connection to the victim, making it much more difficult for investigators to establish what has happened. Although, it is also a fact that the killers may be taken round and shown where to strike.
In communities where such killings have gained currency and have been extensively studied, it has been established that contract killings are often, though not always, associated with organised crime, primarily because career criminals are likely to know contract killers, and believe contracting a murder will lessen the likelihood of being caught.
Depending on the region and era, contract killers have frequently been used to silence witnesses testifying against criminals and their likes, to eliminate rival criminals, people in relationships, rivals in relationships, politicians and people with similar interests such as dispute over property.
There are yet others who contract a murder in an attempt to reap some kind of financial windfall, usually as a beneficiary of the victim's wealth (or is it property?), or as heir to their estate. At least the latter motive had been known to predominate because there have been reported cases in both matrilineal and patrilineal communities where nephews and eldest sons, brothers or even parents clandestinely connive with others to indulge in this crime.
Come to think of the ritual murders in which case the hitmen are hired to slay their victims for money? Of the reported cases in the Ghanaian media, we often heard that even after the victims had been killed their mutilated bodies are displayed or left in the open to attract the communities’ attention in order to achieve the desired result. It is a truism that even in cases where relatives offer their relations to be killed for ritual purposes, they are motivated by money and then are hired to do the killing.
In terms of relationships, the most common motive usually involves simply ending an intimate relationship, albeit for an array of reasons.
There have been instances where contract killers make their crime an obvious murder, but may also try to make the death appear to be a suicide or even an accident, or may hide or destroy the body so that it is not clear to authorities that the victim is dead, only that they have disappeared.
Australians seem to have some kind of answer to what price to place on human life. A particular study of more than 150 contract killings in that country indicated that the average payment was $16,500.
A joint study into attempted and completed contract killings by the Australian Institute of Criminology and South Australian Police found the most common motive was not drugs or organised crime, but domestic violence disputes.
The main motivation for contract killing related to the category of dissolution of a relationship and within that there were reasons such as child custody, issues of money, and just issues of couples disagreeing to the point that one is driven to try and eliminate the other.
Payment for the actual killing (usually referred to as a "hit"), is normally divided by paying part of the total price to the contract killer beforehand, and the remainder after the successful completion of the hit.
The actual amount for a particular hit will obviously vary considerably based on things such as: The hit man in particular and his standards and usual fee, the difficulty and danger in accomplishing the actual "hit" based upon who the person to be killed is, where they are and any likely police, security and media attention, and also specifically if the client wants the target to be killed in a specific manner (to appear as an accident, for example).
A study by the Australian Institute of Criminology of 162 attempted or actual contract murders in Australia from 1989 to 2002 showed that the most common reason for murder for hire was "in relation to the dissolution of an intimate relationship". The study also found that the average payment for a "hit" was Australian $12,700 and the most commonly used weapons were firearms. According to the study, contract killings accounted for two per cent of murders in Australia during that time period.
It said that contract killings made up a relatively similar percentage of all killings elsewhere. For example, they made up about five per cent of all murders in Scotland from 1993 to 2002.
In the case of journalist Ennin, while his murder can pass off as a contract killing, it also best fits into a mistaken identity or armed robbery, judging from the way it was executed, more so when no clues had been found it is also difficult to arrive at such a conclusion.
However, in the case of the GCB boss, it will be difficult to blame it on armed robbery, since his killers just walked straight to his house, demanded to see him and then p-a-w, the trigger was pulled to kill him.
Should we take the police serious when they say that it was premature for anybody to describe the recent murders as contract killings? To a greater extent, we must accept this explanation considering some of the points I have made above regarding no strong and valid conclusions having been made.
Are the police really on top of their job as a Deputy Inspector General of Police, Dr K.K. Manfo, made us to believe during a recent press confab, despite the feeling of insecurity in the country?
The police capo was quoted as saying that ongoing police investigations would determine if the killings were done for money. How is that going to be determined, when in most of the killings the killers had outsmarted the security agencies?
Once the police have not been able to make any meaningful headway in arresting the killers, what we need to do is to discard our lackadaisical attitude in handling issues in this country. It is no secret that Ghanaians are noted for not taking seriously threats of death, which appear to us like mere jargons and which could easily be said to anybody.
Need we discuss the situation in heightened terms when we have been trained not to ask questions and probe people for whatever they say or tell us but take what we are told hook, line and sinker?
It’s rather and most unfortunate that on flimsy pleadings very nasty things which could have been avoided happen to our people. If we have the probing mind, nobody can just walk into our houses and do what they like or want and walk away. After all, when they do come, our children or anybody who first have an encounter with them would easily let them in without asking our supposed visitor (s) a word, and where he/she is coming from and stuffs like that.
Even the planning of our buildings do not help much. In societies where some of these killings have been on a higher magnitude, they just cannot easily take place in peoples’ backyards. Such hitmen find it difficult to do their dirty jobs because the buildings have been structured in such a way that before an intruder or visitor got closer the insider might have noticed him or her already so that any suspicious character would be found out and denied access, except the perpetrator is from within.
Our security agencies need to liaise with social scientists to devise means of studying what is emerging as contract killings before they get out of hand. We need to rethink about these killings to save dear ones because Ghana needs each and every citizen to contribute their quota towards national development.