Man jailed for attempted suicide after stabbing wife

Asamankese (E/R), Nov. 9, GNA - After allegedly stabbing his wife several times and realizing that she was on the verge of death, Sampson Agorda drank DDT, a powerful and poisonous insecticide, in an attempt to commit suicide but did not die.

For the suicide attempt, the Asamankese Circuit court sentenced Agorda, a 52-year old farmer, to three years in jail in hard labour. He pleaded guilty and faces a separate charge of murdering his wife.

Prosecuting, Police Chief Inspector Eric Okyere told the court that Agorda and his wife, Diana, who lived at Topremang, had been married for 10 years without any child.

Chief Inspector Okyere said of late, Agorda had been accusing Diana of being unfaithful to him, which she persistently denied. The court heard that during last Easter, Diana traveled to her hometown and returned on April 14. The following day at about 1900 hours, Agorda returned from town and met Diana and her sister at home conversing.

Inspector Okyere said Agorda greeted them but only Diana's sister responded and that when he asked the wife why she did not respond to his greetings, she did not mind him.

This, according to the prosecution, infuriated him and he attempted to beat Diana who threw a kitchen stool at him. In return, Agorda also slapped Diana and she fell.

The court heard that during the fight, Agorda pinned Diana to the ground until she was freed by the sister who used a chair to hit the brother-in-law.

Thereafter, Agorda reportedly entered his room and picked a cutlass and waylaid his wife who had escaped into a nearby house, stabbing her in the stomach, chest and back when she was returning home. Diana reportedly ran crying for help and Agorda sensing danger, ran back into his room and drank the DDT in an attempt to end his life. After drinking the poison, he ran into his sister's house and requested for water to drink but the sister who smelt the DDT refused him the water.

The woman, according to the prosecution, rather raised an alarm and Agorda was rushed to the St. Dominic's Hospital at Akwatia where he was admitted and discharged on the third day.

Diana, who was bleeding profusely, was also rushed to the same hospital where she died shortly on arrival.

In his statement, Agorda said it was the devil that led him to act the way he did.