THREE HELD FOR MURDER OF WOMAN (BACK PAGE)

THE police at Tepa in the Ashanti Region have arrested three people, including a 17-year-old boy, for the murder of a 56–year-old woman, Afia Yinka, alias No Lie, for ritual purposes.
The woman was butchered in her farm at Tepa, where her assailants were said to have used a calabash to collect blood from the body.
The 17-year-old boy, Stephen Ofori, was arrested alongside Isaac Apraku and Justice Adusei Baffour, all natives of Tepa.
Ofori went to the farm with the woman that day while Apraku allegedly threatened the deceased a few weeks before she was murdered.
For Adusei Baffour, he and an accomplice (at large) were alleged to have butchered the deceased in the farm and collected the blood into the calabash.
They have been remanded in prison custody to enable the police to initiate investigations into the case to facilitate prosecution.
They would re-appear before the Tepa Circuit Court on August 15, 2008
Ofori, who was arrested on July 23, 2008, was first remanded by the Tepa Circuit Court when he appeared before it.
While in custody, he was said to have told the police that Adusei Baffour and another man (now at large) butchered the deceased and bribed him ( Ofori) with GH¢40 to keep his mouth shut.
He was also alleged to have confessed to the police that Adusei Baffour dipped his finger into the blood in the calabash and tasted it.
Ofori further stated that Adusei Baffour threatened to kill him if he ever revealed the secret.
The Tepa District Police Commander, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Stephen Awuah Baffour, who briefed the Daily Graphic on the incident, said: "It was while in prison custody that Ofori started making some revelations in respect of this case."
ASP Awuah Baffour explained that on August 1, 2008, Ofori disclosed to the police that while on the farm with the deceased on July 21, 2008, he saw a certain palm wine tapper whose name he could not disclose coming to the farm to greet the deceased.
He said Ofori also told the police that the palm wine tapper had an axe on his shoulder and shortly afterwards the deceased sent him (Ofori) to fetch water from a nearby stream.
ASP Awuah Baffour said it was when returning from the errand, that Ofori was alleged to have seen Justice Adusei Baffour and his accomplice holding a calabash beneath the neck of the deceased which had a deep cut and blood oozing from it.
According to the District Police Commander, the suspect also told the police that when he attempted to use the deceased's mobile phone to alert some people at Tepa about the gruesome murder of the 56-year-old woman, Adusei Baffour threatened to kill him and later offered him GH¢40.00 in order that he would not disclose the incident to anyone but he allegedly refused to take the money.
The district commander indicated that later, Adusei Baffour dipped his hand into the blood collected and touched the lips of Ofori.
Adusei Baffour pulled a wooden cross and made a sign of the cross before taking the blood in the calabash away.
He said Ofori also told the police that it was after the two had vanished from the crime scene that he managed to board a vehicle to Tepa to inform one Nana Yaw Gyamfi that some people had butchered the woman, stressing that it was based on the latest development that Adusei Baffour was arrested to assist in police investigations.