Crime & Punishment of Saturday, 7 January 2023

Source: GNA

Irate youth lynch popular barber at Asiri 

File photo File photo

There was pandemonium at Asiri, a farming community in the Jaman North District of the Bono Region, when some irate youth allegedly lynched a popular barber, in connection with the tragic murder of a motor rider in the area.

Kwabena Prince, the deceased is suspected to have murdered Alex Mensah, an 18-year-old ‘Okada’ rider on Monday, January 2, on the Seketia-Asueyi road.

Prince allegedly engaged the ‘Okada’ rider to transport him to Asueyi for a fee, but allegedly murdered him on their way back, took the motorbike and fled.

Subsequently, the police at Sampa, the Jaman North District capital declared the suspect wanted and launched a manhunt for him.

Luck, however, eluded Prince, who had gone hiding for some days, when a young man sighted him at a chop bar at Asiri, after residents shared his pictures on the social media to aid police investigations for his arrest.

The Ghana News Agency (GNA) gathered from residents that the young man who sighted the suspect confronted him, and sensing danger he (suspect) took to his heels, but some young people in the town chased, overpowered and arrested and handed him over to the police at Asiri.

But when information about the arrest spread in the town, a mob rushed to the police station, deflated the police vehicle tyres which intended to transport suspect to Sampa, forcibly took him from the police, and lynched him accordingly.

The police had since deposited the body at the Sampa Government Hospital for preservation and autopsy while investigations continued.

As at the time of filing this report, the GNA learnt calm has returned to the Asiri, after some military personnel were deployed to maintain law and order in the town.