Murder at Akorley as 58-year-old farmer is hacked to death

Police in Somanya have begun investigations into circumstances leading to the alleged gruesome murder of a farmer at Akorley, a farming community in the Yilo Krobo Municipality of the Eastern Region who was hacked to death on his farm.

Kudjo Dakudzi, 58, married with 5 children, was attacked and killed by unknown assailants at about 9 am on Wednesday, June 17, 2020, as he weeded his okro farm at Akorley Foah, a suburb of Akorley, police said.

The alarm was raised by two eyewitnesses including the deceased’s 13-year-old son with whom he visited the farm and one Mawuli, aged 18.

The two, according to the Eastern Regional Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Police Service, DSP Ebenezer Tetteh, were working on the farm with the deceased when one Nartey who is litigating with the deceased on a piece of land, together with two others, attacked Kudjo Dakudzi.

The three allegedly hit the deceased on the rib with a stick and he fell where his assailants continued hitting him with sticks and later used cutlasses to inflict wounds on his head and both arms.

The two witnesses recounted that the assailants fearing they would expose their deeds, gave them a hot chase in an attempt to attack them but the two managed to escape to the village where they raised an alarm.

A 32-year-old son of the deceased, Martey Joshua accompanied by one Stephen Narh, subsequently proceeded to the Somanya police station where they reported the incident.

Second of five children of the deceased, Martey, told the police that he was working on his farm when he had a phone call from his younger brother that, their father Kudjo Dakudzi had been killed on his farm.

He reportedly rushed to the scene where he found his father lying dead in a pool of blood with cutlass wounds inflicted on his body.

Police personnel from the Somanya Police Command then proceeded to the scene where visible marks of cutlass wounds and those of assault on both ribs and shoulders were found on the body of the deceased.

Meanwhile, assemblyman for the Akorley Electoral Area Solomon Kwame Todoko observed that Kudjo Dakudzi’s murder is the first of its kind in the area.

The incident, he added, has left the entire community in a state of fear particularly farmers who would visit their farms alone as they could not guarantee their safety.

Joshua Martey said the murder of their father had left the family in a state of fear as they did not know what would befall them.

He, therefore, appealed for police support to ensure their safety.

Meanwhile, the body was conveyed to the Atua Government Hospital emergency ward where he was pronounced dead on arrival by Dr. Foutunate Azuure following which the body was deposited at the hospital’s morgue for preservation and autopsy.

Police say investigations have commenced into the case.