Man Survives Slit Throat �

An attempt by a group to behead a 32-year old farmer, Kwaku Anokorang on a cocoa farm at Atobease, in the Mpohor/Wassa East district of the Western Region, failed when the victim feigned death. For unexplained reasons the assailants upon seeing him dead, decided to go and organize implements for his burial but were surprised on returning to realize that the supposed dead man had vanished. Narrating the horrific story to the 'Chronicle', Nana Toku Brempong II, Akyeamehene of Wassa Atobiase in the Western Region, stated that on the 22nd October, 2014, he planned with his brother, the victim, to go and spray their cocoa farm. For that matter he sent him to go and buy petrol for the spraying machine. According to Nana, he took the lead to the farm and whiles waiting for Anokorang, he heard screams from his brother from another part of the farm and so he started running to that end only to meet him with his head almost severed. Nana said that on the spot, he attempted using his cellular phone to call for help from anywhere but there was no reception, so he carried the victim on his back and headed home whiles he kept checking for network reception. Luck later smiled on him when finally the network was activated at a hamlet � Kojo Kore, where he called for a vehicle and whiles waiting for the arrival of the car he hid the badly injured brother in the bushes and ran towards home in other to meet any on-coming help. Fortunately for Nana, he met the summoned vehicle, a taxi cab with registration number GR 2225 11, and returned with it to where he left the brother in the bush. Whiles returning in the taxi cab, he noticed three persons on a motor bike heading towards the town and upon a closer look, he recognized the man in the middle as Kofi Tettey, who seemed to be injured. He continued that on reaching the place where he had hidden the injured brother, the assailants surfaced with their implements to accomplish their aim � bury the supposed dead man who escaped. Nana further stated that, after turning the taxi to pick the victim from the bush, a group made-up of six men rushed to the taxi and prevented them from assisting the injured person into the taxi. The driver and a cousin who brought in the cab, made effort to stop the irate persons from obstructing them, but met resistance. Nana stated that he managed to shove the injured, now bleeding profusely, into the vehicle and just as the driver wanted to go behind the steering wheel and move, one of them pointed a locally manufactured gun at him and dared that he would kill him if the driver attempted to spark the cab and move. At this juncture, the driver who got frightened took to his heels into the bush and abandoned them. Realizing that the ignition key was still in the cab, he got behind the steering wheel and drove at tough speed as the assailants made frantic effort to chase the taxi, hitting it, but he managed to escape with the injured person together with his cousin. According to Nana Toku II, he drove so badly that he never observed even potholes and as a result crashed the vehicle into an object leading to the sump damaging and subsequently, causing the engine oil to spill out. He drove on till the car ceased to move, and after checking, he discovered that the engine had broken down, so he summoned yet another taxi from town. Whiles waiting for the arrival of the second taxi, he carried the injured on his back, making the journey until they met the vehicle which transported them first to the police station at Atobiase. The only person on duty, one Inspector Segbenu, after observing the degree of injury suffered by Kwaku Anokorang, informed Nana that one Kofi Tettey had earlier been brought to the station and made a similar complaint that he had been attacked and he sustained a hand injury and for that matter, needed police action and was issued with a medical form. Nana continued that he was also issued with a police medical form and proceeded to the Central Regional Hospital at Cape Coast, for treatment. A source at the hospital, who was part of a team that attended to Kwaku Anokorang, speaking to this reporter, confirmed that they received the injured with deep lacerations on the neck and back. According to the source, Dr Dormenya, the medical superintendent in-charge of the hospital, himself led a team to attend to the patient and though had initially wanted the badly injured person to be transferred to the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital (Interbetton), but after considering the distance to the elite health center and coupled with the continuous loss of blood, they decided to do their utmost best, hence stitched the wounds to make way for further treatment. Our investigations at Atobiase revealed that Kofi Tettey, who was alleged to be part of the attackers of Anokorang, after he was issued with a police medical form, went to a local clinic but was referred to a hospital at Twifo Praso. The Western Regional Crime Officer, Superintendent Reuben Asiwoko, when contacted stated that statements had been taken from the injured persons and that police have launched investigations into the matter, which will include going to the scene. According to police, Kofi Tettey claimed in his statement that he was rather attacked on the cocoa farm by Kwaku Anokorang, who reportedly inflicted cutlass wounds in his hand. This action, according to Tettey, caused him to scream, which attracted his brothers to scene and he was rushed on a motorbike to Atobiase Police Station before going for medical treatment at Twifo Praso. Kofi Tettey, police said, did not know whatever might have taken place again in the bush. Further investigations conducted by the Chronicle revealed that, there has been a conflict between Nana Toku II�s family and the assailants over a tract of land. The disagreement started when the forebears of the assailants were brought onto the 15 miles square farmland by Nana Toku II�s ancestors, to live and work for their family and agreed that the laborers would work on a portion demarcated, for cocoa, and the owners would have two-thirds of the harvest whilst the workers kept the one-third. The owners later on realized that though the plantation was yielding good harvest, the workers were not being accountable and upon investigations, they got to know that the workers had gone far beyond the initially demarcated land and tilled extra, which had yielded much more. Upon Nana Toku Brempong II�s enstoolment, he made demands on the laborers to be accountable, not only for the initial demarcation, but also for the portion that they later claimed and worked on without consultation with the owners. This demand was rebuffed by the workers who rather insisted that they would share with the land owners, only the portion that was initially agreed upon and this has hitherto created the animosity between the land owners, on one side and the workers� family, on the other.