The Aflao Police have stepped up their search for Kwame Torsavi, 42, unemployed, who attempted to poison his wife by lacing her alcoholic beverage with acid on 27 March.

Torsavi, a citizen of Hohoe, was said to have broken into Faustina Agbeli, the wife's room through the roof while she was away in Lome and doused her seven wax prints, blouses, pants and other with acid, destroying them. Faustina, 42, in a story corroborated by a police source at Aflao, said she and Torsavi had been married for the past 13 years and lived in the same room at Gbedekope, a suburb of Aflao.

The police said Faustina, who operates a chopbar in Lome, the Togolese capital rented the room they were occupying but later decided to rent another room and advised Torsavi to move with her to the new accommodation.

The police source said Torsavi agreed, collected the key to the room and moved there. Faustina and Torsavi's eight year-old son with another woman were to join him later. Torsavi was said to have raised objection to the new place and suggested they maintained the old place to which his wife objected.

The source said when Faustina returned from Lome she noticed changes in her bedroom and a search revealed that a substance had been poured on her clothing. The source said when Faustina picked her drink she noticed it had changed colour on examining it detected that it was laced with acid. Torsavi's son is still under the care of Faustina while his father is on the run.