Horror! Pregnant woman clubbed to death in Kumasi

Mon, 17 Feb 2014 Source: Ivan Heathcote-Fumador/Ultimate Radio/Kumasi

A Twenty-Eight year old pregnant woman, Sarah Ofori, has been killed under bizarre circumstances at the Sokoban Wood Village, a suburb of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.

The deceased, a chop bar attendant and a native of Afife in the Volta Region, is said to have been clubbed to death by an unknown assailant who was later lynched by a mob who caught him red-handed. The identity of the alleged assailant is, however, unknown as police say he was a stranger in the community.

According to eyewitnesses, the attacker attempted to rape the pregnant woman and ended up inflicting cutlass wounds on her as she struggled with him. Residents, who came out of their homes after hearing the screams of the pregnant woman, accosted the man who was caught in his tracks with blood stains all over his clothes, hands and feet.

An eyewitness, who gave his account of the incident, told Ultimate Radio’s Nana Oye Diabene that, “I heard the woman wailing at about three o’clock a.m. at dawn and so I rushed out to see the woman lying in a pool of blood with a young man standing close to her. He refused to speak when we questioned him but upon dragging him into the light, we saw blood stains all over him. We decided to tie him with a rope and call police to come for him but he took to his heels and dived into a stream close by”.

He added that, following a vivid description of the assailant, some residents readily identified and traced him to a house in the area where he was confronted.

“When we got there, he was washing the blood stains off his legs and hands. He took to his heels immediately he saw us but the incensed mob pursued him and grabbed him”.

The eyewitness, who will not disclose his identity to Ultimate Radio, could however not admit that the multitude of residents beat the suspect to death. He only said they came back later to find the alleged assailant’s lifeless body in the open.

The Asokwa Police Commander, Superintendent Samuel Adane-Ameyaw, who confirmed the incident to Ultimate Radio, said “Sarah was walking from the serving area of her chop bar to the kitchen clearly to prepare this morning’s meals when the man attacked her with a club and hit her severely on her forehead from which she fell down and died instantly”.

“When we were preparing to go there, we had information that the assailant who was an unknown person in the area had been arrested but before police got there they had already lynched him. We had to take two bodies instead of one,” he stated.

Superintendent Samuel Adane-Ameyaw said investigations have begun into the matter as the officers had already taken finger prints from the cordoned crime scene and the two bodies sent to the mortuary for autopsy.

The deceased, Sarah Ofori, was four months pregnant and was survived by a husband and a two year old lactating son. Her mother, who was shocked by the news of the death of her daughter, told Nana Oye Diabene that she had no cause to suspect that anyone had a bone to pick with her daughter.

“My daughter has never picked up a fight with anyone since her time in school; through her adult age in JSS to SSS till she married. And I just don’t know how such an innocent person could be killed this way” she narrated in tears.

She revealed further that her daughter had only returned from her marital home to see how she could help her manage the chop bar business they both started only to meet her untimely death.

Source: Ivan Heathcote-Fumador/Ultimate Radio/Kumasi