Three men before court for alleged murder

Kuntanase (Ash), March 26, GNA - The Kuntanase magistrate court last Thursday remanded three persons into prison custody for allegedly murdering an 80-year-old man

Charles Owusu, 40, trader, Ben Nkansah, 40, wood carver and Francis Asare, 33, labourer, whose pleas were not taken are to re-appear on April 7.

Prosecuting, Police Chief Inspector Edward Osei told the court presided over by Mr Agyei Frimpong that Opanin Yaw Asamoah, 80-year-old farmer at Afrancho, went to the bush on January 4, 2005 but never returned and as such a search party was organised but he could not be found.

He said in February this year, a witness in the case whose name was withheld for security reasons, reported that he found the walking stick of the old man in the bush.

He subsequently reported the matter to the family of the deceased, who organised another search party and found the body of the deceased in a pond.

Chief Inspector Osei said a post-mortem report from the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital revealed that the deceased had head injuries. The prosecutor told the court that the witness in the case disclosed later that on January 4, he spotted six persons including the accused persons around the pond but they warned him to shut up or would also vanish.

He stated that the witness after a while felt he was being haunted by the ghost of the deceased and therefore decided to report the incident to the Twedie police who then arrested the three while the other three bolted away.