Koforidua (Eastern Region) 15 March '99

The Koforidua Police has placed two brothers in custody for allegedly murdering one Januru Abdulai, a 27-year-old unemployed at Suhyen, near Koforidua. The suspects, Daniel Appiah 20, and James Appiah 16, were said to have beaten Mr Sanuru with sticks and inflicted cutlass wounds on him till he died.

They allegedly carried the body to the Suhyen Local Authority Junior Secondary School where they hanged it on a tree. A source at the Koforidua Central Police Station said Appiah and Mr Sanuru were engaged in rivalry over a girlfriend. It said on March 12, Mr Sanuru who lives at Jumapo went to Suhyen, to attend a wake-keeping. At about midnight he went to knocked Appiah's door to find out whether the girl, who stays at Jumapo was in his room.

The source said when Appiah opened the door and saw Mr Sanuru, he shouted and called his brother, who brought cutlasses and a saw, which they used to kill him. However, the source said a witness (name withheld), who is a relative of the suspects, went to the scene during the scuffle to separate them. It said when news broke in the town the following morning that someone had hanged himself, the witness identified the deceased as the one, who was fighting with the suspects. He, therefore, rushed to their house and arrested them and sent them to the Jumapo Police station. During interrogation, the suspects allegedly admitted committing the crime. The body of the deceased has been deposited at the Koforidua central hospital for autopsy.