Man, 36, Held Over Girlfriend?s Murder

The residents of Swanlake in Accra woke up to a bizarre spectacle at dawn on Saturday, when a 36-year-old accountant of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Kingsley Awagah, allegedly murdered his 32-yaer-old girlfriend and attempted to end his own life.

Awagah, who is married to two wives, and suspected the deceased, Beatrice Mensah, also a secretary with the AMA, of cheating on him, laid ambush at her residence and called her to her room where he allegedly murdered her.

According to the police, there were no wounds on the deceased and it was believed that she was strangled to death by Awagah, who also stabbed himself in the abdomen in an attempt to commit suicide. He, however, did not die but was initially presumed dead and taken to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital mortuary together with the deceased, only for the police to realize the he was still alive. Awagah was subsequently rushed to the intensive care unit theatre. All attempts by newsmen to get to the accident ward of the hospital to find out whether he was dead or alive proved futile. But the Kaneshie district crime officer, deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Frank Adufati said he was alive and under police guard at the hospital.

He told newsmen that Beatrice and Awagah had been in a relationship for quite some time until the incident. DSP Adufati said although Beatrice was married to an ex-policeman who was outside the country, it was believed that their marriage had broken down and she was dating a ?service? man who had the support of her family. The suspect, he said, had wind of the relationship and did not take kindly to that at all. DSP Adufati said that last Friday, November 5, 2004, the deceased went to the ?service? man and returned home early Saturday.

But unknown to her, Awagah had left his pig farm residence to lay ambush at her house and while she was sweeping the compound at dawn, he emerged from his hideout and told her that he wanted to have a word with her in her room. She obliged and accompanied Awagah to the room but for quite sometime nothing was heard until someone went to knock on the door.

According to DSP Adufati, the landlady, Ms. Sussy Owu, who had a spare key to Beatrice?s flat opened the door and saw Awagah standing in the room. When she asked the whereabouts of Beatrice, Awagah said she was asleep but upon a cursory look, she realized there was blood on the floor. DSP Adufati said the landlady, suspecting foul play, raised an alarm and people in the neigbourhood rushed to the scene. At that juncture Awagah left to hide in the kitchen and blocked the entrance with a fridge but he was found lying in a pool of blood in the kitchen with his intestines showing.

When the police visited the scene at the house number 00905, they found the neck of Beatrice swollen while Awagah also lay in a pool of blood. DSP Adufati said the police found a dagger with blood on it lying by the side of Awagah and a note presumably written by him in an exercise book and dated November 6, 2004. It read ?Goodbye. Thanks, Captain Amenya. This is what you want, enjoy your life. The crime officer said the bodies of Beatrice and Awagah were then taken to the Korle-Bu mortuary but while there it was realized that Awagah was still breathing so he was taken to the emergency ward.