Autopsy Delays Burnt Woman's Case

The late Madam Ahima in her younger days.

The six people standing trial at the Tema Magistrate’s Court for an alleged act of human burning will have to await the post mortem results on the deceased.

The trial magistrate, Mrs Johana Yankson, granted the prosecution’s request for an adjournment of the case to December 20, 2010, as police investigators were yet to receive the autopsy report on the deceased, Ama Ahima

Two of the suspects, Samuel Ghunney, a 50-year-old photographer, and Emelia Opoku, a 37-year-old teacher, are alleged to have tortured and set ablaze the 72-year-old woman, leading to her death, when she strayed into their compound at Community One Site 7 in Tema.

The deceased, according to the prosecutor in the case, Chief Inspector Emmanuel Addai, was doused with kerosene laced with petrol and subsequently set ablaze, with the assistance of Samuel Fletcher Sagoe, 55, an evangelist; Nancy Nana Ama Akrofie, 46; Hannah Sagoe and Mary Sagoe, 52, all unemployed, who have been released on police enquiry bail.

Family members of the principal suspect, Ghunney, who thronged the court protested vehemently at its decision to grant the evangelist, Fletcher Sagoe, a police enquiry bail.

They described the action of the court as unjust since, according to them, Ghunney’s role in the whole incident had been informed by the evangelist who invited him to the compound where the incident occurred.

Their action led to a hold-up of proceedings at the court, giving the security personnel and police prosecutors on duty a hectic time controlling the crowd, most of whom had travelled all the way from Dahwenya in the Dangme East District of the Greater Accra Region where Ghunney resides.

Madam Ahima, a native of Ajumako Assasan in the Central Region, was allegedly detained and tortured for four hours by the suspects in an attempt to extract confessions of being a witch from her.