Amnesty Int’l – Tamale Death Sentence Unfortunate

• Posted on July 13, 2018
• by Ellsamwise King
• Comment

Human Rights Group, Amnesty International, has lashed out at a High Court Judge in Tamale for sentencing a man to death for killing his wife’s relative in a ferocious sex row.

Nabinte Lokwai, 35, was sentenced to death by hanging by Justice Edward Apenkwah on Thursday July 12, 2018, after a seven-member jury unanimously found him guilty of murder.

Reacting to the development on Starr Midday News, the Country Director of Amnesty International Ghana, Robert Akoto Marfo labeled the sentence as crude.

“It is rather unfortunate that Ghana, we are still handing down death penalties or death sentences to Ghanaians. I believe that this is something that we should put an end to,” he told Eric Mawuena Egbeta Friday.

Background

The State Prosecutor giving details of the crime said Lokwai was arrested by immigration officers near Ghana’s northern border with Cote D’Ivoire on May 19, 2013, after he attempted to flee after stabbing to death his wife’s sister, Gbeno Yongbon, at Bale, a village in Bole Bamboi district.

Mr. Qudus narrated that the deceased was picking shea nuts at a farm on the day she was killed when the convict approached her and demanded sex. The attorney added that when the deceased declined, the convict then stabbed her multiple times after failed attempts to forcibly rape her.

The woman was rushed to the hospital where she was pronounced dead after a woman who witnessed the painful murder raced into the village and announced the news about the incident.

The convict was arrested the next day while he was fleeing into the neighboring country and handed over to police in the district capital. He confessed to killing his wife’s sister after the failed rape attempt.

More to face a similar fate

The Regional State Attorney said that five more people are currently on the list and might suffer a similar fate.

“We started in February, this is a special trial and we are at various stages of completion. So between now to 31st [When the court would rise], we have about five or six in the pipeline. One manslaughter suspect who killed the mother of his child two weeks ago was sentenced to 50yrs,” Mr. Qudus disclosed.