Farmer butchers wife over theft accusation

Bompata (Ash), Jan. 7, GNA - The Juaso Police has mounted an intensive search for a 40-year-old farmer, who butchered his wife and in the process murdered his three-month-old baby at Bompata, near Asankare in the Asante Akim South District.

Abudu Sule Muye, a native of Wadianya in the Northern Region, is believed to have committed the crime as a form of revenge for being accused of stealing the wife's wax print.

The wife, Afia Rose, who suffered several cutlass wounds, is currently responding to treatment at the Juaso District Hospital. Superintendent Francis Aggripa Oppong, District Police Commander told the Ghana News that the couple, who had been married for some years and had five children, recently had a misunderstanding which was amicably settled by some elders.

He said on January 3, the couple went to farm together with three of their children where the suspect asked the kids to look for firewood while he and the wife uprooted cassava nearby.

Superintendent Oppong said the suspect then took advantage of their absence and butchered the wife several times and in the process slashed their three-month-old baby then strapped at the back of her mother, twice on the head.

The Commander said the suspect returned to the children after the wife had fallen unconscious and informed them that their mother had taken the lead home through another route. On reaching home, the suspect immediately disappeared from the house while the children informed the Assembly Member (AM) about their missing mother.

The Assemblyman then reported to the Police through whose investigations it was discovered that the suspect had hidden his blood-stained attire under his bed thereby confirming the crime. A search party was deplored to the farm the following day where the wife was found lying on the ground unconscious while the baby was dead. The Police have, therefore, appealed to the public to be on the lookout for the suspect.