Unemployed Faces Murder Charge

Sunyani A Sunyani High Court will give judgement next Monday in a case in which a 40-year old unemployed is facing trial for murdering a 60-year-old farmer, Opanin Kwasi Nsiah at Susuanso near Sunyani. The accused, Kwaku Badu Poku, alias Bogya Badu, is alleged to have inflicted cuts on the head of Nsiah on December 12, 1993, resulting in his death on the way to hospital after allegedly stealing four fowls belonging to Madam Adwoa Addae, wife of the deceased. Giving the case for the prosecution, Mr Matthew Amponsah, a State Attorney, said that Madam Addae lived with her husband, Nsiah at Susuanso but her kitchen was at the outskirts of the town near the abode of the accused. He said on that fateful day when she went to the kitchen at dawn, she discovered that four of her fowls have been killed with the head of one buried in the kitchen. He said Madam Addae informed her husband who went to the kitchen from where he traced the blood drops and feathers of the fowls to the abode of Badu. Mr Amponsah stated that the accused pounced on the deceased after he had complained to him on the issue and inflicted several cuts on his head and bolted. He said two witnesses, Afia Boahemaa and her son, Yaw Agyeman, who heard the shouts of the deceased and stood at a distance watching what happened raised an alarm and Badu was arrested after a search party had been organised. Mr Amponsah asked the court to meet out the maximum sentence to the accused since he intentionally murdered the deceased to cover up his theft of the fowls. Counsel for the accused, Mr Ameyaw Cheremeh, pleaded with the court to be lenient with his client since he committed the crime under insanity. The presiding judge however, rejected the claim that the accused is insane since that is not contained in the evidence before court.