Tenant butchers landlady and commits suicide

From Clara Moore, Koforidua

A LEGITIMATE demand by a landlady at Aboabo near Koforidua for the payment of an accumulated rent of ¢4,500 by a tenant has led to a bizarre incident resulting in the death of the tenant and the landlady sustaining severe cutlass wounds. After allegedly inflicting severe cutlass wounds on the landlady, the tenant, Abraham Odonkor, a 24-year-old farmer, was said to have committed suicide by running into a moving vehicle.

The landlady, Awo Mele, 65, is currently on admission at the Koforidua Central Hospital.

A police source at Koforidua confirmed the story and said investigations are underway. The source, however, declined to give details. A grand-daughter of the victim, Victoria Osei, said in an interview that Odonkor rented a room in the victim's house about three years ago. She said before the deceased moved in, the landlady advised him to use the three years advance of ¢1,500 a month to renovate the room which needed some repairs. She said Odonkor exhausted the advance at the end of December, last year, and was expected to begin his monthly payment of ¢1,500 in January this year, but he refused to do so. He also refused to pay his light bills. Victoria said all attempts by the landlady and her relatives to collect the accumulated rent of ¢4,500 from Odonkor proved futile. The deceased contended that since he used his money to renovate the room, nobody had the right to demand any rent payment from him. She said Odonkor was subsequently ordered to leave the house but he defied the order.

Victoria further said on April 3, this year, the deceased started bragging that if anybody dared to approach him for money, he would “butcher” the one and three days later while the victim was alone in the house preparing palm oil, Odonkor carried his threat and attacked her with a cutlass inflicting deep wounds on her head and neck. She said a Good Samaritan, who spotted Awo Mele in a pool of blood, rushed her to the Koforidua Central Hospital. Immediately after committing the offence, Victoria said Odonkor went to his father who also resides in the village and told him that he had succeeded in killing his troublesome landlady and that he was going to end it all by also killing himself. She alleged that the decease ran into a moving vehicle on the main Koforidua-Somanya road. The deceased, she said was rushed to the Koforidua Central Hospital where he died the following day. He has since been buried.

When the Graphic visited Awo Mele at the hospital on April 12, she could not talk. But later in an interview, Doctors Ralph Quartey and Kofi Yamoali, the medical officers attending to the victim confirmed the story and said Awo Mele, who was brought in unconscious with four deep lacerations on the head and neck, was responding to treatment.