Farmer Runs Amok; Kills Man And Injures 3 With Cutlass

The Police in Obuasi have in their custody a 45-year-old Togolese farmer, Kwabena Sododzi, who ran amok on Saturday night and killed a man and injured three others with a cutlass. The suspect, a cocoa farmer at the Asomadwo farming community in the Adansi South District of the Ashanti region, allegedly butchered to death 60-year-old Kwame Sekyi and later inflicted deep cutlass wounds on the deceased�s wife and two Basare children at a nearby cottage. Sekyi, a coca farmer with three children, was slashed twice on his head and neck respectively, resulting in his untimely death, while his wife, Afua Broyan, 50, was hacked on the head, but survived the attack. She is currently at the Akrofuom Medical Centre receiving treatment while the body of her husband has been deposited at the Obuasi Government Hospital, awaiting autopsy. The suspect also hacked two children from a nearby cottage within the same village before he turned himself in at the Akrofuom Police station. ASP Matthew Asante, Obuasi Municipal Police Commander, who confirmed the incident to Daily Guide, said the suspect claimed he was manipulated by the spirits of his shrine god called �Akwasa�, which he collected from a certain man at Mafi in the Volta region. According to him, the suspect, who had confessed killing the man, told the police he took the action based on suspicion that the deceased and some other persons he met on his way home might have gone to kill his children that night. He disclosed that suspect Sododzi said he attacked the two children, Isaac Mensah, 18, and Daniel Mensah, 11, for having misdirected him when he sought direction to a community he could get �apeteshie�- a local gin- to buy, after killing Sekyi, his bosom friend. The police boss said the suspect cut the fingers of Isaac Mensah and beat his younger brother Daniel with the cutlass he was wielding around 3 am. �I was looking for �apeteshie� to buy in order to pray and pacify the shrine god after killing Sekyi and injuring his wife, but these boys, who are from the Basare ethnicity, misdirected me and I wanted to teach them a lesson,� the suspect recounted to the paper in an interview. He told Daily Guide he hails from Hawutoe in Togo and had been living at the Asomadwo farming community since 1988 as a cocoa/palm plantation farmer with 13 children. Sododzi said he did not know what compelled him to commit such an offence, but added that he suspected he was possessed by the spirit of his lesser god. He expressed regret for his action and prayed that he be allowed to work and take care of the children left behind by the deceased, who was his bosom friend. ASP Asante noted that the suspect was arrested Sunday and a cutlass was recovered from his possession at his shrine. He assured of a thorough investigation to unravel the mystery surrounding the incident to ensure that justice is dispensed.