Crime & Punishment of Thursday, 4 February 2010

Source: GNA

Self styled herbalist and pupil in court for manslaughter

Ho, Feb. 04, GNA - Moses Tsiteh, a herbalist, and Christian Adzako, a Junior High School pupil, on Monday appeared before a Ho High Court for manslaughter. They pleaded guilty and were each granted bail in the sum of 20,000 Ghana Cedis with a surety. They would reappear in court on February 22, this year. Assistant State Attorney Comfort Tasiame, told the Court presided over by Justice Kofi Essel Mensah that on October 16, 2006, one Bright Addo, now deceased, consulted Tsiteh at Lomnava, near Tsito in the Ho Municipality for fortification against cutlass wounds.

She said after the fortification, Tsiteh used the cutlass on Addo but it slipped off his body without any cut. Madam Tasiame said Adzako who had also come to consult Tsiteh for some spiritual assistance, also decided to test the cutlass on Addo, but this time around it left a deep cut on the latter's upper arm resulting in profuse bleeding.

She said Tsiteh and Adzako rushed Addo to the Ho Municipal Hospital but that he was pronounced dead upon arrival. Madam Tasiame said Tsiteh and Adzako were subsequently arrested while a post mortem examination conducted on Addo indicated that he suffered a "monadic shock" due to the cut. Mr Ernest Gaewu, a lawyer who acted as a friend of the Court, pleaded for bail for the accused persons.