Crime & Punishment of Friday, 24 July 2015

Source: GNA

Court remands father for killing son

The Agona Swedru Magistrate Court has remanded a 60-year old father into prison custody, for conspiring with three others to kill his own son.

The plea of the father who has self-styled himself as the chief of Gomoa Gyaman, with the stool name, Nana Kwame Donkoh, was not taken, and he will re-appear on August 21.

Nana Donkoh has been provisionally charged with murder, while Ebenezer Donkoh the elder son, Darten and two other accomplices, are at large, and have been declared wanted by the police.

Prosecuting, Police Inspector Yaw Boadu, told the court presided over by Mr Isaac Appeatu, that the deceased, Seth Donkoh, 35, married with five children, and his father, are both famers at Opentrinkwa-Adukrom village.

According to the prosecution, a misunderstanding arose between the father and the son over the ownership of a cocoa farm.

Inspector Boadu said on July 13, 2015, the accused person who visited Gomoa Gyaman, near Gomoa Afransi, returned to the village to see that the son had sold some quantity of cocoa beans.

He said when he asked the son it degenerated into further misunderstanding resulting in the father becoming annoyed.

According to the prosecution, Nana Donkoh asked the elderly son to organize thugs from Gomoa Gyaman to come and teach the deceased a lesson, which he did.

He said on the same day, the elder son, third and fourth accused persons, together with the father, arrived at the village with the intent to murder the son.

The prosecution said they started beating the deceased until he became unconscious and died.

According to the prosecution, Nana Donkoh then shaved the hair and private parts of the deceased, put the body in a taxi cab and drove off to the outskirts of the village, where he dumped the dead body.

Inspector Boadu told the court that on July 14, the residents of Apuum village informed the Agona Nyakrom Police of a dead body lying at the out skirts of the village.

According to the prosecution, the same day, the father of the deceased came to the Nyakrom police, and reported of his missing son.

Inspector Boadu told the court that Police intelligence, however, revealed that the father of the deceased was one of the perpetrators of the crime, and he was arrested.