Farmer sentenced to death for killing a chief

Koforidua, Jan. 23, GNA - A Koforidua High Court, presided over by Mr Justice F. Miezah Anyimah, on Monday sentenced a farmer of Akim Oforikrom in the Birim South district, to death by hanging for allegedly murdering the chief of the town, Nana Kwadwo Obuba. Kwame Okyere, was found guilty by a seven-man jury through a unanimous verdict.

Prosecuting, a Senior State Attorney, Mrs Emily Addo-Okyere, had told the Court that on May 4, 1999, the deceased and his wife had a misunderstanding in their house but the convict, who came around to ostensibly separate them, rather engaged the late chief in a scuffle. She said a brother of Okyere whose attention was called to the incident, rushed there and took him to his room and locked him up, but later, Okyere armed himself with a pair of scissors and climbed out of the room through the window.

Mrs Addo-Okyere said the convict ran back to the house of the deceased and without any provocation grabbed the deceased and stabbed him in the ribs and stomach, forcing part of his intestines to gush out. She said the late chief was rushed to the Akim Oda Government Hospital but he died soon after admission.

After the judge's summary of evidence and briefing on the law, the jury, led by Mr Emmanuel Opare, took barely 10 minutes to arrive at a unanimous verdict of murder by the convict. Okyere had appealed for mitigation of sentence, saying "I am at your mercy, as I have come to the end of the road."