FARMER TO DIE BY HANGING (PAGE 25)

From Zakaria Alhassan, Tamale

A FARMER who was haunted continuously after murdering his two colleagues on their respective farms at Kpandai in the Northern Region eventually confessed his crime to some acquaintances, leading to his arrest and ultimate conviction.
The convict, Nadoh Kokomba, was on June 3, 2008 sentenced to death by hanging, by the Tamale High Court presided over by Justice Simon Gbiel Suunu Bareh, for shooting and killing the two victims who were working on their farms.
The deceased, Akitanyi Akim Banu and James Kofi Anebo whose bodies had to be exhumed for autopsy, have finally been put to rest at Kpandai.
The facts of the case, according to the prosecutor, Assistant State Attorney Salia Abdul-Quddus, is that on May 23, 2005, the victims went to their respective farms at Kpandai but failed to return home in the evening.
He said the families of the two decided to organise a search party to look for them on their farms where they were found dead.
Mr Quddus said because it had earlier rained heavily on that day, the search party concluded that the victims might have been struck by lightning and thunder and, therefore, attributed their death to the wrath of the Thunder God as dictated by their beliefs. As such, the deceased were buried.
The truth, however, began unfolding on May 26, 2005 when the convict, haunted by his dastardly action, visited one Alhaji Tahiru Jawula and Manbunwura, his acquaintances at Kpandai, and confessed to them that he was actually the person who murdered Banu and Anebo.
He was subsequently handed over to the police by Jawula and Yakubu and in his statement, Konkomba alleged that it was the former who hired him to kill the deceased and for which reason Jawula gave him a shotgun and a packet of cartridges.
He further stated that Jawula promised to give him a house and an amount of GH¢2, 500 if he successfully carried out the act. Investigations later proved that Alhaji Jawula was innocent.
On June 3, 2005 when the convict led a team of police investigators from Tamale to the scene of the crime, he identified the spots where he shot the victims and four empty cartridges were retrieved.
When the bodies of the deceased were exhumed and a post-mortem carried out on October 6, 2005, it revealed that the victims died as a result of gunshot wounds they sustained.
According to the prosecutor, earlier on January 10, 2005, Konkomba was reported to have stolen 2,500 pieces of yam seedlings from the farm of Banu and one Alhassan Ntasa.
The case, which was witnessed by Anebo, was settled amicably after the convict had been arrested by the police.