Pastor Draws Cutlass

... inflicts wounds on daughter?s boyfriend
Reverend Amanoo Asante?s patience ran out at midnight last Tuesday when he caught his daughter and her lover in bed.

Rev Asante, who is the leader of the Ejisu branch of the New Testament Assemblies Church, allegedly inflicted machete wounds on his, the 29-year-old lover of daughter, when he pounced on him in the bedroom of his daughter, Patricia Asante.


Details of the encounter were narrated at the circuit court at Ejisu last Wednesday by Chief Inspector A. K. Danquah, who said Rev Asante lived in the same vicinity with Smith, who befriended Patricia.


He said Smith and the pastor?s daughter had a very good relationship. However, when the pastor questioned them, they denied ever being together.


He related that Rev Asante mounted surveillance on the two and on that fateful Tuesday, April 4, at about 1a.m., he sensed that Smith was sleeping in Patricia?s room.


The prosecutor said the accused went to knock at the daughter?s door but she did not respond. The minister then went to the kitchen and fetched a machete, with which he forcibly opened his daughter?s door.

He added that just as the accused forced the door open, the complainant, sensing danger, attempted to escape from the room but came face to face with the accused at the doorway.


The accused, in an angry mood, allegedly slashed the complainant twice on the head and once on the right cheek, while the complainant pleaded with him to let him go.


The prosecutor said Smith managed to snatch the machete from the accused and, with blood all over his body, he rushed to the Ejisu Police Station to lodge a complaint.


The complainant was rushed to the Juaben Government Hospital and later referred to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH for further treatment. According to the prosecutor, after the incident, the accused collected the personal belongings of the complainant, which he had brought to the girlfriend?s room, and set them ablaze.


After the complaint had been made, the police picked the accused for interrogation and he was subsequently arraigned.

Counsel for the accused person pleaded with the court for bail but the court, presided over by Justice Adutwum Mmorosah, remanded him in police custody for a week to reappear on April 12 to enable the police to conduct further investigations into the case.


The police said Rev Asante?s act followed his disapproval of the amorous relationship between his daughter and Smith.


A large crowd from Ejisu, including members of the New Testament Assemblies Church, besieged the court premises.


Some church members, in solidarity with their minister, threatened to assault this reporter if anything was published about the case and even attempted to snatch the reporter?s digital camera. It was only the timely intervention of a police escort that enabled this reporter to flee the scene to safety.