Crime & Punishment of Thursday, 4 July 2013

Source: dailyguideghana.com

Husband killer's woes deepen

Having denied contracting a robbery gang to kill her husband to enable her to marry a white man from the United States of America, 39-year old Sala Karim has been identified by a taxi driver as the one who hired him to convey the suspected killers to her GHS Estate residence at Pokuase to commit the crime.

According to the taxi driver, whose name is being withheld, Sala Karim also known as Mother, paid him an amount of GH¢50 to transport the three suspected killers from Dodowa to her GHS Estate that fateful day.

“When we arrived at the house around 4:30pm, the suspects asked me to wait in front of the house while they entered the house.

“I waited for more than one hour before mother, came out of the house to give me GH¢50 and then ask me to leave,” he said.

Suspect Sala Karim was arrested on June 18, 2013, together with three others including her brother, for killing her husband.

The others were Kofi Nyagbedzi, 34, gang leader; Awudu Alhassan Sulemana aka Dozer, 32, the brother of Sala and Mohammed Sulemana aka Babana, 44.

The deceased, Abdul Karim, 50, met his untimely death at their GHS Estates residence near Pokuase on June 15, 2013, around 9:00pm when a three-member gang, including his brother-in-law, clubbed him to death.

Suspect Sala, currently on remand, denied having contracted the three suspects but insisted that they came on their own to kill the husband, even though the three have confessed that she paid them GH¢1000 to commit the act.

The taxi driver said he heard the revelation in the media and decided to help the police in their investigations.

The four have since been remanded into prison custody by the Osu Magistrate Court to reappear on July 8, 2013, for hearing.

It would be recalled that on June 15, 2013 Suspect Sala Karim hired the services of the robbery gang, which included her brother, to kill her husband, Abdul Karim.

To help speed up the act, Sala who has three children with Mr Karim, allegedly laced his food with a sleep-inducing diazepam or valium, before the three robbers clubbed him to death.

After the act, Sala allegedly went to the Pokuase Police Station to report that her husband had been killed at their residence while she was taking her bath, by an unknown gang.

The nefarious activity came to light after police arrested four other gang members who were sent by Kofi Nyagbedzi to attack a hotel at Adenta.

Suspect Kofi Nyagbedzi, during interrogation by the Accra Regional Police Command, confessed that he could not join in the second operation because Sala Karim aka Mother had hired him together with his brother Awudu Alhassan Sulemana, and Mohammed Sulemana to kill her husband at Pokuase.

He said they were given GH¢1,000 after the act. Kofi then led police to Dodowa where Awudu and Mohammed were then hiding, and they were also arrested for questioning.

Awudu and Mohammed admitted taking part in the killing of Abdul Karim on June 15, and added that they were paid to do so.

Sulemana Mohammed revealed that Awudu Alhassan, the brother of Sala Karim, contacted him to help in carrying out the act, which he obliged.

Awudu also confessed to the police that his sister, Sala, contracted him four months ago to eliminate her husband for GH¢1000.

According to him, the sister informed him that she was befriending a white man based in the United States of America who would be coming down to pick her to the States.

She said the presence of her husband, who always subjected her to severe beating, would not allow her to carry out her plans of marrying the white man.

On the scheduled day, Sala locked the three of them in their bathroom together with their clubs and sticks, while they waited for the husband to return from work.

After the husband arrived, Sala induced him to sleep by putting some quantity of valium in his food.

After eating the food, the deceased, Abdul Karim, immediately fell asleep and so the wife placed him on a mattress before calling the miscreants to come out with their clubs.

They then clubbed the husband to death in a brutal fashion.

Sala pretentiously started wailing for help while they fled the scene. She later visited the Amasaman Police Station to report that thugs had killed her husband.