Another tragedy hits Kumasi

RESIDENTS in Kumasi last Sunday woke up to yet another tragic incident after a 25-year-old truck pusher was clubbed to death by his own brother at Old Tafo, a suburb of Kumasi.

What reportedly started as a little scuffle between Tambiri Kwaku Frafah, 22, and Yaaba Zan, 25, both brothers of the same father but different mothers, turned tragic when Yaaba, in retaliation to an attack by his brother Tambiri, hit him severally with a plank until his brother gave up the ghost.

Tambiri and Yaaba, both truck pushers and hail from Bolga in the Upper East Region, but ply their trade at the Kumasi Central Market, were reported to have engaged in verbal fisticuffs, after the suspect expressed concern about the deceased's consistent alcoholic intake and its effect on his health.

The deceased was said not to have taken kindly to his brothers nagging and threatened to kill him should he continue to talk about him and the way he led his own life.

An eyewitness, who gave his name as Wofa K, told the Tafo Police that on Sunday morning, he went to the house where the two brothers stay, which is close to the Osei Kyeretwie Senior High School, to enquire the where about of his missing wheel barrow, when he saw the two brothers engaged in a quarrel with the suspect holding a cutlass while the deceased held a piece of wood.

He said, when he enquired about why they were fighting, the suspect told him not to worry, because his deceased brother was drunk and that he was only trying to pump sense into his head.

The eye witness said he begged the two to stop quarrelling and requested that they handed the cutlass and the wood to him, which Tambiri obliged after which he left them and continued the search for his wheel barrow.

However, few hours after he had left, news broke out that Yaaba had killed his brother.

Fearing for his life, Yaaba quickly rushed to inform one of their aunts, who also handed him over to the Tafo District Police. Yaaba, however, told the police upon interrogation that his brother threatened to kill him and that during the previous night, he was attacked by some robbers, whom he believed was masterminded by his deceased brother.

He said he was taking his bath in the morning when Tambiri suddenly bumped into him in the lavatory and hit him with a wooden material after which he managed to seize the piece of wood and also hit Tambiri back, until he became unconscious and fell down.

Realizing that his brother could not move, Yaaba reportedly seized the opportunity and made further attack by hitting his brother with any material he could lay hands on, including hammer and blocks until he was convinced that Tambiri was dead.

Meanwhile, the Officer in charge of the Tafo District Police Command, DSP Kwaku Buah, has corroborated the information and said the suspect would soon be arraigned before court and charged for murder.

DSP Buah, however, expressed worry about the misinformation which was initially doing the rounds in Kumasi by a section of the media to the effect that a young man had killed his sister for ritual purposes, a situation which instigated a section of the youth in the area to storm the police station and demand that the suspect be released so they could lynch him.

He said it took the timely intervention of his men to prevent mayhem and appealed to the media to be circumspect in their reportage. The body of Tambiri has since been deposited at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital morgue for autopsy.