Crime & Punishment of Tuesday, 2 August 2016

Source: dailyguide

Hunter guns down wife

File photo File photo

There was sorrow at Bodwesango, a farming community in the Adansi North District of the Ashanti Region yesterday when a 62-year-old hunter allegedly gunned down his wife and fled.

Yaw Amissah, a supposed drunkard in the quiet community, allegedly took the bloody action on Monday at about 12:30am without provocation after attending the same church with the deceased on Sunday.

Abena Duah, a mother of seven, was said to have been shot in the chest at close range with a double-barrel gun by Amissah who had not paid her bride price.
According to reports, he harboured hatred for the deceased after she decided to divorce him because of his refusal to stop drinking alcohol regularly.

Reports said Amissah trailed the women to her father's house late in the night after the deceased rejected pleas to reconcile with him the previous day and shot her.

According to Kofi Adu, a nephew of the deceased, he heard his aunt screaming for help around which was quickly fol­lowed by a gunshot.

He said when he opened his door, he found Maame Abena Duah in a pool of blood on the ground, while the husband, Yaw Amissah was still holding a double barrel gun which he had pointed to the ground.

"I was threatened with death by Opanin Amissah when I attempted to go to my aunt's rescue, so I managed to move out of the house to raise alarm after the bullet fell to the ground as he tried to set the trigger of the firearm back for firing," he narrated.

Confirming the bloody incident, father of the deceased, Opanin Kwadwo Adu told Daily Guide that Yaw Amissah killed Abena Duah because she had made up her mind to end the conjugal relation­ship because of his chronic alcoholism and failure to provide for the family.

He narrated that his daughter told him the man was not providing for her and the children and that he regularly consumed alcohol which had become nuisance to her.

According to him, Abena Duah, who had cohabitated with the 62-year-old hunter for 40 years, would not budge in spite of several meetings held to settle the misunderstanding between them.

He said she moved out of Amissah's house some two years ago amid insults from him.

"I was asleep this dawn on Monday when one of my grandsons ran to me, screaming that his aunt Abena Duah had been shot by her husband and that she was lying in a pool of blood. She died shortly after the incident and her body was taken to a morgue at Adiemera," Opanin Kwad­wo Adu stated in a sorrowful manner.

He stated that his son-in-law did not openly show any sign of frustration and resentment towards the deceased after they separated even though he had insist­ed that he would not allow Abena Duah to divorce him.

Opanin Kwadwo Adu said his daugh­ter on Sunday at about 8:00am came to inform him that she had received informa­tion that her husband had been monitoring their house since the separation.

"Little did I know he was going to carry out this bloody action against my daughter. Amissah has since gone into hid­ing, while a search party has been commis­sioned to look for him," he disclosed.

Kofi Adu also confirmed that his aunt moved out of Amissah's house to live with his grandfather in the same community.

He said deceased and Amissah had been fighting over his drinking habit and failure to cater for the family so she decid­ed to end the marriage.

The police are frantically looking for Amissah to face the full rigors of the law.