The High Court in Accra has sentenced a blacksmith, Daniel Obirikwa Adjin, to life imprisonment for murdering his elder brother William Adjin in March 2017. The jury, in a 5:2 majority, found him guilty of murder, after which the court convicted him and passed the sentence.
The Court heard that on March 19, 2017, the convict stabbed the deceased multiple times, leading to his death. The late William Adjin and the convict lived in the same house at Mamprobi in Accra. On March 19, 2017, at about 9 p.m., a son of the deceased said he went into his bedroom ready to sleep while his late father was resting on the porch after eating.
The son said he suddenly heard a shout for help from his deceased father. He rushed outside and saw his father struggling with the convict. He got closer and saw blood gushing from the collarbone of his father while the convict made attempts to stab him further. The son rushed to the aid of his late father and held the hand of the convict to prevent him from inflicting further wounds on the deceased.
The son shouted for help, and his father was rushed to the hospital, where he died after about an hour. Postmortem report on the deceased revealed excessive loss of blood due to internal and external bleeding and multiple stabbed injuries.
The convict in his defence said on that fateful day, he returned from a funeral tired, hungry, and drunk. He decided to get money from his room to buy food. The convict said he could not find the money where he kept it. He continued that he came out of his room with a knife and shouting on top of his voice over the missing money.
The convict narrated that without any provocation, his late brother pushed him on the floor and squeezed his manhood. He said he did not know how the deceased was stabbed. The prosecution, however, submitted that the convict’s defence was untrue and inconsistent.