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Crime & Punishment of Wednesday, 30 October 2013

Source: GNA

Murder suspect in custody at Ho

Aflao police has transferred a murder suspect and three accomplices into custody in Ho, amidst mounting clamouring for their lynching.

Hunor Tsani Baniba, 42, a fetish priest of Laklevikope, a village near Denu, is alleged to have conspired with his three aides to kill Agbodugbe Aloryi, 51, a trader, and mother of four, who is his third wife.

He then severed her head and buried it in the house and erected an idol at the spot and interned the body elsewhere.

Aloryi was allegedly killed to stop her from exposing them over a missing ram that they had stolen.

The accomplices of Hunor Baniba, who is also known as Togbe Akpogada Gidzi are, Zikpi Agbahode, 30, a kente weaver, Ahorlu Eklo, 22 and Mawuli Agbashi, 19, both fishermen, all said to be his aides.

A police source told the GNA that Hunor Baniba, after the act, dispatched Eklo and Agbasi, thought to be faint-hearted, to Yeji, in the Brong Ahafo region to engage in fishing to keep a seal on the crime.

However, Eklo and Agbasi, revealed the secret to their landlord at Yeji to stop the alleged incessant torment by the spirit of Aloryi, the deceased.

The landlord then led the two to the Yeji police to make a report, who then transferred them to Aflao District Police to continue investigations.

When news of the suspected murder and the arrival of a homicide squad from Accra to the scene of the incident to exhume the remains of Aloryi broke at the weekend, scores of people converged at the scene demanding the suspects be brought out from wherever they were to be lynched.

The source said Hunor Baniba, who has chains of idols, lived in a three-room house behind the St. James Business College at Laklevikope.

He said Hunor Baniba lived in the same house with his wives and aides.

The source said about two months ago, the suspects were confronted by a man for stealing his ram, an allegation they vehemently denied.

He said Aloryi, knowing her husband and aides indeed stole the ram, pestered them (husband and aides) to own up and have the case amicably settled.

The source said Hunor Baniba and his aides therefore decided to kill Aloryi to obliterate any source of evidence on the stolen ram.

He said Hunor Baniba, assisted by Agbahode, severed the head of Aloryi, and collected the blood that oozed out into a gallon as Eklo and Agbashi looked on.

The Police source said the suspects then buried the head in one of the three rooms in the house and quickly erected an idol at the spot to evade any suspicion and interned the main body elsewhere.

An armed police team is guarding the priest’s house awaiting the arrival of the police homicide team for the exhumation of the body as part of investigations.