Teenager goes to jail for causing harm

Kumasi, July 26, GNA - A Kumasi circuit court on Thursday sentenced an 18-year-old boy of Ayigya Zongo near the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to one-year imprisonment for stabbing two persons with a kitchen knife.

Issifu Seidu, a school drop-out pleaded guilty to causing harm. Prosecuting, Chief Inspector Joseph Odjidja told the court that the accused person lived in the same vicinity with Mohammed Azare and Alijah Abubakari, first and second complainants respectively.

He said at about 0600 hours on July 16, this year, Azare saw his sister-in-law bent down and groaning in pain and quickly ran to her to find out what the problem was.

The prosecution said Azare's sister-in-law told him that one Yahaya, who is now at large, hit her lower abdomen. Not long after, Azare saw Yahaya passing and confronted him as to why he hit her sister-in-law in the lower abdomen.

Chief Inspector Odjidja said Yahaya did not take kindly to the confrontation and so he became furious and slapped Azare and this turned into a misunderstanding between the two.

He said Seidu, who is the younger brother of Yahaya who witnessed the confrontation from distance, rushed to the scene with a kitchen knife and stabbed Azare on the right arm and inflicted several cuts on his body.

Chief Inspector Odjidja said Alijah Abubakari who tried to intervene was also stabbed on the right arm by Seidu leaving a deep cut on the victim.

He said the victims were rushed to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital where they were admitted for four days and Abubakari was discharged.

Chief Inspector Odjidja said people who came to the scene managed to arrest the accused and handed him over to the KNUST police who after interrogation charged him with the offence.

In passing judgement, Mr Essel Mensah, the judge, said the punishment would have attracted a severer sentence considering its gravity but he took into consideration the age of Seidu.