Cabbie convicted to death

A notorious taxi driver murderer, Ebenezer Odum alias Lewin, who killed two of his colleagues, bolted with their taxis and tried to kill a third one but could not succeed, has been sentenced to death by hanging by a Sunyani high court in the Brong-Ahafo Region.

Lewin, whose case shocked the people of Sunyani in July this year, was to face another charge of attempted murder before the same court on 27th November 2015, according to police sources. After the trial, Ebenezer Odum is again to be transferred to Akyem Oda in the Eastern Region where he is supposed to be tried over another murder case.

The case in which Lewin has been convicted to die by hanging involved the murder of one taxi driver, Kwabena Kumi, on 13th July, 2013. Kwabena’s body was dumped in a nearby bush near the Fiapre toll booth. The police said after receiving information that a dead man was lying there, they proceeded to the crime scene and found Kwabena’s body burnt from the head to the waist. There was no sign of struggling around, but they found only car tyre marks. This made the investigators suspect that he was murdered somewhere and dumped there. An announcement was later made for the public to come and identify the body.

He was identified as a taxi driver who had gone missing three days before. A prison officer also came to say that Kwabena was her Hyundai Atos driver who drove her taxi with registration number BA 2742-13 but had not been seen together with the car for some time. Upon that information, the police alerted its entire outfits to look out for a vehicle with such a number.

On 31st August 2013 there was another attempted murder of a taxi driver, Kwabena Kumi Adjei alias Home Boy, in a bush at Nsoatre but Kumi managed to escape. A day later, one Lewin went to the Nsoatre police station in a Hundai Atos with registration number GW 6779-12 with a rope and cutlass to report that somebody had wanted to kill him, but he managed to escape. Three days later, Kwabena Kumi also emerged from the bush with cutlass wounds all over his body to report to the same Nsoatre police that there was an attempted murder on him.

Ebenezer Odum was then invited for questioning. According to the police, his story was unbelievable because there were a lot of inconsistencies in his narration.

Investigation later revealed Lewin’s modus operandi, was detained and processed for court.