Jealous Lover Charged With Murder

Asante Bekwai -- WHEN he peeped through a hole and saw his girlfriend engaging in a sexual relations in her room with moneylender who had come to transact business with them, this was such a bitter pill for the 42-year-old man to swallow that he allegedly set the room ablaze leading to the death of the woman.

Kwadwo Appiah, the man who was having the affair with the woman, however, managed to escape unhurt, and naked, to an unknown destination.

Alex Kwabena Awuah, the accused, used a syringe to discharge petrol into the room and allegedly set the room ablaze.

A circuit court at Asante Bekwai, presided over by Mr Agyei Frimpong, has remanded Awuah into prison custody.

This was when he appeared before the court on a charge of murder. His plea was not taken and he would reappear on April 26.

Prosecuting, Chief Inspector M.M. Lumor said Awuah and the deceased girlfriend Akosua Durowaa lived at Mile 14, a predominantly farming community near Jacobu in the Ashanti Region. The deceased had been his concubine for the past ten months.

On February 8, this year, Appiah, a moneylender, went to the village to transact business with his clients including Appiah and the deceased.

Appiah decided to spend the night in the village and persuaded the woman to allow him to sleep with her in her room.

Chief Inspector Lumor said in the night, Awuah managed to create a hole through the mud building where the woman lay and when he peeped through it he found her having sexual relations with the moneylender.

Awuah then went for a gallon of petrol and using a syringe discharged enough of the petrol into the room to set it ablaze.

The prosecutor said the moneylender managed to escape from the room but the woman was trapped in the blaze.

She shouted for help but there was nothing onlookers could do as the fire burnt her to death in the room. Chief Inspector Lumor stated that the accused was immediately arrested and handed over to the police.

The charred body of the woman had since been buried after post-mortem examination.