SHOCK AND misery rocked Ayitey, a farming community near Assin-Fosu in the Central Region, on Saturday, after a 22-year-old man beheaded a farmer and fled.
Salem Ibrahim, an unemployed man, took the bloody action around 10:00am on the farm of the victim, David Paddy, without showing any signs of frustration and anguish of being the perpetrator of the crime.
David Paddy, 34, was hit with a club from behind by his assailant, Salem Ibrahim, who later used the machete of the victim to sever the head from the body in a bizarre manner.
The suspect killed the farmer when he accompanied his elder brother’s wife to the victim’s farm with the aim to buy some sacks of plantain.
According to DSP Kingsley Owusu Bempah, Assin-Praso District Police Commander, a certain woman by name Akua Tiwaa, a trader residing at Akrofobi community in the Assin North District of the Central Region asked the suspect to accompany her to the farm, which he obliged.
He said the suspect, a younger brother of the woman’s husband, was to help the trader to carry her purchased plantains from the victim’s farm to the market.
While in the farm, the police chief narrated that the farmer, David Paddy, began plugging down the plantains when Salem Ibrahim, without any provocation, picked up a club and hit the deceased from behind.
DSP Owusu Bempah disclosed that as David fell onto the ground, 30-year-old Akua Tiwaa became alarmed, and sensing danger, took to her heels, while the suspect chased her.
The police commander stated that the woman ran to inform the village folks of Assin-Ayitey about the incident.
When the woman and some members of the community rushed to the scene, suspect Salem had used a two-and-half foot machete to sever the head of the victim.
It is not clear whether the suspect has a history of mental illness, although he claimed to have been taken to a traditional priest some years back.
Salem told the police he suddenly became possessed by some spirits, which made him to imagine the victim as a cock.
DSP Bempah said the suspect was being held for provisional murder charge as the head and body of the victim were deposited at the New Edubiase Government Hospital.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, New Edubiase