Daughter of woman killed in hotel reacts to mum's death rumours

Ms Adwoa Boakyewaa, the daughter of a murder victim, Comfort Owusu Afriyie alias Maame Yaa, who was shot and killed by her alleged boyfriend at a hotel in Kumasi, has described her mother as the type who does not like going out and making friends and has appealed to the general public to stop spreading false rumours about her deceased mum.

A 42-year-old man identified as Edwin Awuku allegedly shot and killed Maame Yaa at the Ceder Crescent Hotel at Danyame, Kumasi in the Ashanti Region where they checked in together, according to investigations by the police.

The police says there was no armed robbery attack at the hotel as had been reported by the complainant, who is the wife of the suspect.

On Thursday, 2 January 2020, at about 1 a.m., the suspect checked in at the hotel with Maame Yaa, 46.

While in the hotel room, Mr Awuku, according to the police, shot the victim in the chest, killing her instantly.

The suspect also sustained an injury on his left forefinger in the process.

Mr Awuku, sensing danger, left the hotel unnoticed and drove to his residence at Amakom and informed his wife about the incident and dropped the murder weapon and his mobile phones at home.

Both the suspect and the wife went back to the hotel to raise an alarm about the incident, drawing the attention of other persons.

Mr Awuku and his wife later drove to the Central Police Station, where an official complaint of an alleged armed robbery and murder was reported.

The police found a Smith & Wesson SD 9mm pistol, an empty shell casing and an Infinix Hot 5 mobile phone at the suspect’s residence at Amakom.

Mr Awuku has been arrested and in custody while the docket is being prepared for onward transmission to the Attorney General’s office for advice.

Speaking in an interview on Thursday, 9 January 2020, Adwoa Boakyewaa, said: “I know my mum, she’s not the outing type, my mum doesn’t make friends. She doesn’t like: ‘I’m going to visit this friend or that’, so, sometimes if I tell her: ‘Mum, I’m going to visit a friend’, she gets angry at me that she wouldn’t allow me to go, so, my mum is not that type.

“And then, what I’m hearing, the news circulating outside, I want it to get clearer to them that my mum, my mother Comfort Owusu Afriyie, Mamae Yaa, is not an outing type, she doesn’t go out, she doesn’t make friends, so, I’m begging them to stop, they should stop because she’s not like that.”

Boakyewaa said she was even sadder because she was preparing toward her graduation at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) with her mum.

“I went to sell my phone to give her the money to prepare for my graduation, my graduation is on the 10 January 2020 at KNUST Great Hall, I’ve bought her a new [pair of] shoes and then we were preparing for what to wear, unfortunately, she couldn’t join me.”

Meanwhile, the management of the hotel where the deceased was murdered has begun installing CCTV cameras on the premises.