TEENAGER STRANGLES FOSTER FATHER TO DEATH (MIRROR, PAGE 25)

From Samuel Duodu, Goaso.

The Goaso Magistrate’s Court presided over by Mr Albert Zoogah has remanded a 19-year-old unemployed man, Osumanu Ibrahim, in prison custody for allegedly strangling his 75-year-old foster father, Brimah Toure, to death at Nkaseim in the Asutifi District of the Brong Ahafo Region.
Ibrahim has been charged with murder under section 46 (1) of Act 29/60. His plea was not taken and he is to reappear before the court on November 5, 2008.
The accused person is alleged to have attacked the deceased, a Muslim cleric, who was asked to take care of him and his other siblings after the death of their father.
Ibrahim is alleged to have attacked the deceased two days after he had returned from a visit to his children in Accra, broken into his ‘Ecolac’ bag and a small steel box in which he kept the contributions of members of his mosque and made away with the contents.
However, Ibrahim told his girlfriend, Meli Mana Sami, a.k.a Mother, about the murder and she informed the police when she was picked for questioning.
Presenting the facts of the case in court, Chief Inspector Charles Arthur said on October 2, this year, at about 3a.m., the Nkaseim police received information that the deceased, was found dead in a supine position at house number KO/305 at Nkaseim.
He said the police visited the scene and found out that the deceased’s ‘Ecolac’ bag and a small steel trunk had been forced open and the contents stolen.
Chief Inspector Arthur said the deceased’s room was also found to have been ransacked while it looked like the deceased might have struggled with someone who strangled him.
He said Ibrahim was arrested while loitering around the deceased’s house and found with abrasions on his face and chest and his left hand bitten.
Chief Inspector Arthur said when Ibrahim was questioned by the police as to how he had those abrasions on his body, he said he fought with his girlfriend.
The prosecutor said his girlfriend however, denied that she had fought with the suspect and told the police that Ibrahim confided in her that he had murdered his foster father and asked her to tell the police that he (Ibrahim) fought with her.
Chief Inspector Arthur prayed the court to remand Ibrahim to enable the police conduct further investigations.