Farmer injects baby with pesticide
Accra (Greater Accra) 03 March 2002 - A chief
who is also a retired Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), recently missed
death by the skin of his teeth when his wife grabbed his double-barrel gun,
aimed at him and pressed the trigger. Luckily, the gun did not fire because the
woman did not know how to cock it before firing.
Nana Amponsah Gyan, Twafohene of Bedu in the
Wenchi District of Brong Ahafo Region, was so scared that he decided to divorce
the woman, known as Comfort Adwapa Amponsah, 48, to save his life. He contacted
an elderly family member of the wife and gave him a bottle of schnapps at a
drinking bar to signify the end of their 20-year old marriage.
To deepen her woes, Nana Gyan, 54, also seized
all the belongings of the wife including cooking utensils and beads and has denied
the wife her share of their property. The chief did not understand why the
woman should threaten to kill him with his own gun over a trivial issue.
"She dashed for my double-barrel gun and nearly blew my head off. I will
not marry her again", he said.
Feeling cheated, the wife, on Tuesday, February
19, this year, dragged Nana Gyan to face a three-member panel of the Police
Women and Juvenile Unit (WAJU) at Sunyani. The panel was made up of Assistant
Superintendent of Police, ASP Alex Yartey Tawiah, WAJU head, Inspector Selina
Aboagye, WAJU and the Regional Principal Development Officer of Social Welfare,
Mr Lawrence Azam.
Madam Comfort is demanding her share of their
property including a house for the 20 years in marriage. She is also accusing
the man of improper divorce. Drama unfolded when, on three occasions, the two
love birds nearly turned the WAJU office into a boxing ring when each of them
accused the other of committing bigamy.
When the panel members asked whether they were
prepared to solve the problem to live together again as man and wife, the chief
caused laughter after the woman had consented. "Who will marry a woman who
has threatened to kill her husband with a gun. I will not do it. I don't know
what she will do to me next time," he said.
The woman in her response, admitted attempting
to kill him with the gun, but said that was when the man had hit her jaw with a
pestle, which broke most of her molars. She attempted to show the broken teeth
to the panel members.
According to ASP Yartey Tawiah, the couple met
in 1978 at Duayaw Nkwanta near Sunyani when the woman was a Ward Assistant at
the Duayaw Nkwanta Hospital. The man was also a Police Sergeant. In 1980, they
married and registered the marriage in 1982. The woman already had three children,
the man also had four children before they got marriage. They are now blessed
with four children making the number 11.
As the man continued to be on transfer, it
became necessary for the woman to abandon the job and join her husband wherever
he went. Trouble started in 1994 in Tamale when the chief claimed that he had
been ridiculed by one of his stepchildren. That was when he decided to marry
another woman at Tamale.
This brought about a heated argument, which saw
the man allegedly hitting the wife's jaw with a pestle, removing some of her
molars. The woman, also dashed for the man's double-barrel gun to kill him. The
woman could not quickly operate the weapon and the man snatched it from her. A
scuffle ensued and sympathizers rushed in and separated them.
The trouble lingered on until somewhere in 1998
when the man cunningly offered schnapps to an elder of the woman's family to
dissolve the marriage. According to ASP Yartey Tawiah, the panel would take
concrete decision on the case, come Friday, March 8. - The Spectator
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Farmer injects baby with
pesticide
Sunyani (Brong Ahafo Region) 02 March 2002 - A
27-year-old cocoa farm caretaker who allegedly killed his three-week-old
daughter by injecting her with Furadan, a pesticide, has been arraigned before
the Sunyani High Court, charged with murder. Prosecuting, Mr B. Cab-Beyuo,
Chief State Attorney, said the accused, Kwadwo Broni, a cocoa farm caretaker at
Mintumi, near Sankore in the Brong Ahafo Region, has two wives.
He said Broni lived with his senior wife in his
house while the junior, Akua Agyeiwaa, was staying in her family house. According
to Mr Cab-Beyuo, after the junior wife had delivered, Broni named the child
Dora Fordjour but thereafter failed to cater for her and her mother.
He said the woman lodged a complaint with the
Odikro of the village about her husband's irresponsibility and the chief
decided to settle the matter amicably. Mr Cab-Beyuo stated that Broni, who
harboured ill-feeling against his wife for reporting his conduct to the chief,
invited her to bring his three-week-old daughter to him in his house on May 23,
1998, to which she obliged and left the baby with her father.
He said not long afterwards, Broni called the
wife to take the baby back home. Mr Cab-Beyuo said no sooner had Madam Agyeiwaa
taken the baby to her house than she realized that she was looking pale, bleeding
from her nose and refused breast-feeding.
He said the woman removed the baby's dress only
to realise that blood was oozing from the left side of her buttocks. Mr
Cab-Beyuo said Madam Agyeiwaa reported the matter to her brother and the two
confronted Broni about the condition of the baby, which developed into a heated
argument.
He said the confrontation attracted the
attention of members of the local unit committee who arrested Broni and sent
him to the chief's palace where he confessed having injected the baby with a
hypodermic syringe. The Chief State Attorney said the baby died while being
rushed to the hospital.
He said initially, an autopsy report could not
determine the cause of death so the baby's liver and kidney were sent to the
Ghana Standards Board (GSB) for toxicological test, which proved that the human
parts, as well as the hypodermic syringe and needle contained Furandan.
According to the GSB, Furadan is a carbonated
pesticide used mainly for agricultural purposes. It is very toxic and if
injected into the body will result in the victim's death. Mr Cab-Beyuo said
after police investigations, Broni was charged for murder. - The Mirror
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Man parading as chief in
trouble
Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 02 March 2002 - After 22
years of fruitless struggle to occupy the Wamfie Stool, a 62-year-old man, Nana
Kwadwo Peprah, has landed into further trouble as he has been arraigned before
a Sunyani circuit tribunal charged with offensive conduct conducive to the
breach of peace.
Police said Nana Peprah on two occasions
dressed up as the chief of the town, and with his "retinue" attended
two funerals in the town, which nearly plunged the town into violence as his
supporters and those of the incumbent chief nearly clashed. He pleaded not
guilty when he made his first appearance and the tribunal, chaired by Mr
Justice Gyebre, granted him a ¢5 million bail to re-appear at a later date.
Prosecuting, Police chief Inspector Akwasi
Asafo-Agyei said when the last chief of the town, Nana Kwasi Ansu died in 1980,
Nana Peprah contested and lost the stool to Barima Ansu Agyei. The prosecutor
said Barima Ansu Adjei went ahead to swear the oath to the Dormaahene, who is
the traditional overlord to the Wamfie Stool.
He said Barima Ansu Adjei also assumed the
position of Krontihene of the Dormaa Traditional Area and was gazetted as such.
Chief Inspector Asafo-Adjei said on February 12, 1999, during the funeral of
one Osei Kwame, at Wamfie, Nana Peprah dressed up as a chief and with a
"retinue" paraded through the funeral grounds.
He said but for the intervention of security
personnel, supporters of the incumbent chief and those of Nana Peprah would
have clashed. The prosecutor said on March 3, 2000, Nana Peprah again orgainsed
some people and attended the funeral of one Opanin Kwaku Ansu as chief of
Wamfie.
He said when Nana Peprah reached the funeral
grounds, one of the people accompanying him shouted for everybody to stand up
since the Wamfie chief was at the grounds but some people ignored the order.
The prosecutor told the tribunal that but for the intervention of security
personnel and some other people, there would have been a clash between
supporters of Nana Peprah and Barima Ansu Adjei. - The Mirror
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 02 March 2002 - Participants at the forum organized by the
Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) have stated that the public is
not ready for any increase in utility tariffs. They contended that considering
current harsh economic situation in the country and the pressure on the incomes
of Ghanaians, any increase in tariffs would aggravate the economic situation of
consumers.
The forum was organized by the PURC to create
public awareness about the activities of the commission and to sentitise them
on their rights as consumers. It was also to enable the PURC to collect data on
the efficiency of the utility and service providers.
The participants said what the PURC should do
now is to get the two main utility providers, namely the Ghana Water Company
Limited (GWCL) and Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), to improve on their poor
service delivery. They said until this is done, the companies should not think
about proposing new tariffs.
The Executive Secretary of the PURC, Mr Stephen
Adu, noted that consumers have rights and the PURC is now making conscious
efforts to educate them about these rights. He said the PURC does not only
regulate the billing of the utilities companies but also ensures that consumers
are treated fairly, in order to get value for their money.
Mr Adu gave the assurance that the price
increase will be approved when there is the need for the increase. An official
of the GWCL, Mr Badu Browm said while the consumers seek for improved services,
they must also play their roles by paying the bills on time and reporting all
illegal connections that lead to loses to the utility companies for prompt
action. – Daily Graphic
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Teshie (Greater Accra) 02 March 2002 - The
Teshie township went almost ‘dead’ on Thursday, when the ‘Times’ broke the
story of Atswei Pat, the 28-year-old AIDS patient who disclosed minutes before
her death that, she had infected about 39 men with the virus.
The question of who were among those infected,
was the talk of the town while some men in the vicinity still wore pale faces.
Some women have called for a compulsory AIDS
test for all men in Teshie to determine those who had any sexual relationship with
Atswei.
“Emergency” family meetings were convened on
Thursday in some homes, to advise young girls to beware of any man in the area
who proposed to them. An elderly woman, Madam Gladys Annang, who spoke to the
‘Times’, said that she had the shock of her life when she heard the news. She
called on young girls to refrain from pre-marital sex.
The Bukoeshie area where Atswei lived was like
a cemetery as most men went to bed very early to get over the mental ordeal of
whether they were victims. The whole town seemed to be asking one question.
“Who ever had had sexual affairs with Atswei as at the time she died after
contracting the disease?”
A woman, who pleaded anonymity, said that the
number of those infected could exceed the 39 that Atswei mentioned. “If the
promiscuous life in Teshie is not checked, the disease will continue to spread
since every disease is attributed to witchcraft,” she said. - The Ghanaian
Times
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