Court sentences man, 35, to death by hanging in Tamale

A man who killed his wife’s relative in a fierce struggle over sex has been sentenced to death after five years of trial at a High Court in Tamale, the Northern Regional State Attorney who led the prosecution has told Kasapa News.

The convict, Nabinte Lokwai, 35, was sentenced to death by hanging by the court presided over by Justice Edward Apenkwah on Thursday July 12, 2018, after a seven member jury unanimously found the accused guilty of murder.

Lokwai killed one Gbeni Yongbo at Bale, a village near Bole in the Northern Region on May 19, 2013 when he spotted the deceased picking shea nuts and approached her, asking her to allow him have sex with her but the deceased declined.

But the convict who was bent on satisfying his sexual urge attempted to forcibly have sex with the deceased resulting in a struggle between the two. Lokwai in the process stabbed the Yongbo with a knife and later took to his heels after observing that she was unconscious.

A female farmer, hiding in a nearby bush who heard the scream of the deceased during the struggle run to the village and informed members of the community who rushed to the scene where the body of the deceased was discovered.

Lokwai was subsequently arrested later in the day at Chache border near Bole by an Immigration officer while he tried to escape to Cote d’Ivoire.

Upon interrogation, he confessed that he had killed a woman who refused him sex.

The Immigration officer then handed him over to the police who accompanied him to the scene where the body of Gbeni Yongbo was retrieved.