The Dansoman police are currently having a 38-year-old man in their custody for allegedly beating his wife to death at Dansoman, a suburb of Accra. The 48-year-old woman, who was a trader at the Dansoman market – Beatrice Ama Osaah popularly known as Ama Osah – reportedly died on arrival at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital at dawn yesterday when she was rushed to the health facility for medical care. The husband, Samson Kwabena Ohene, who is also a trader, is assisting the police in investigation. An eyewitness said even though the two love birds were not legally married, they had been co-habiting for almost 10 years and have two children. Samson Kwabena Ohene, residents claimed, had constantly abused his wife at the least provocation. “Even last Monday, July 18, 2016, Kwabena Ohene beat up the wife for switching off their ceiling fan,” the resident stated on condition of anonymity. When the paper contacted 18-year-old Mary Nti, who is the deceased person’s niece and had been staying with the lovers and their two children in their single room apartment at the Dansoman beach area, she said Ohene had constantly assaulted the woman. She said in the evening of Monday, July 18, 2016, at about 7pm, her aunty, who claimed she was not feeling well, was lying in bed while man sat at another end of the room reading newspapers. She said the woman called her to put off the fan because she was felling cold. Mary said immediately she put off the fan, Mr Ohene subjected her to some beatings and when her aunty intervened, she was also attacked. “Mr Ohene collected a plastic chair my aunty was holding and used it in beating her up,” she asserted. She said it was the landlord who finally came in to rescue the woman from the hands of the man. Mary continued that the following Tuesday, she saw her aunty limping because of the beatings. According to her, that Tuesday evening, the woman’s condition deteriorated and “when we rushed her to the Dansoman Polyclinic for treatment, she was referred to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital for proper medical care where she died at dawn that Wednesday on arrival.” She continued that it was some friends and family members who later heard of the abuse and the death and reported the case to the police, leading to the arrest of Kwabena Ohene. When contacted, ASP Effia Tenge, the Accra Regional Police Public Relations Officer, confirmed the death but added that they had provisionally charged the suspect for murder. “We are waiting for the autopsy report to be out before we can go ahead with any further charge; but for now, the police cannot establish that it was the abuse that caused her death.”
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey
