Man Kills Brother-In-Law

A 75- year-old farmer has been remanded into prison custody by a Tarkwa circuit court for causing the death of his brother-in-law, Henry Bliss Asamoah, 58, at Asankrangwa in the Western region. The accused, Kwabena Diawuo, pleaded not guilty and will re-appear on February 28. Prosecuting Deputy Superintendent of Police Albert Aditta told the court presided over by Mr. Samuel Obeng Diawuo that the complainant Kwaku Thomas is a farmer resident in the same vicinity at Adjakaa-Manso with the accused and the deceased who was a teacher. According to DSP Adiita, the accused owned cocoa farms at Sompre and employed farm laborers who maintained the farms. He said in January one of the laborers called Abu harvested the cocoa, cracked the pods and kept the cocoa beans in the farm for fermentation. DSP Aditta said for about six days Abu was nowhere to found on the farm and the fermented cocoa in the shed was also getting rotten so the accused engaged the services of some people and the cocoa was brought to his cottage for him to dry. He said when Kwabena sold the cocoa beans he paid off those who helped him bring the product home and kept 31 Ghana cedis for Abu. DSP Adiita said on February 20, Abu resurfaced to the cottage and the accused told him that he had sold the cocoa beans and kept 31 Ghana cedis for him and that he should produce all the fowls he had stolen from the cottage before the money would be given to him. The Prosecutor said Abu became offended and threatened to kill the accused if he did not give the money to him and he left. He said on that same day when the accused returned from Sompre he was told by a witness that Abu came to the cottage with a cutlass and cut cocoa pods into pieces and stated that if he had met Kwabena he would have slashed him. DSP Adiita said that night the accused, armed himself with a locally made pistol, was lying in front of his entrance when he saw flash lights from a cocoa farm heading towards his cottage. According to the Prosecutor, the accused got up and laid ambush around his house and saw two persons enter his room and came out but thinking Abu had come to kill him. The accused shot the person who turned out to be his brother-in-law and another person who heard of the threat against the accused and had come to send him to Adjakaa-Manso. DSP Adiita said the accused later led the police to his cottage and the pistol was retrieved with an empty cartridge in the chamber of the pistol.