Details are emerging about the motive behind the brutal murder of the mother-in-law and two children by Lance Corporal Winfred Dodzie Amuzu, a 32-year-old policeman attached to the Rapid Deployment Force (RDF) Unit of the Tema Regional Police Command.
He purportedly committed suicide after the heinous act.
The incident, which occurred in a semi-detached uncompleted building at Kufuor Estate located between the Devtraco Courts Estate and the Affordable Housing, near Kpone in Tema, has become talk of the entire community.
The two boys were identified as Elikem Amuzu, one year and 7 months old and 3-month-old Holali Amuzu, and their grandmother, Mary Quarshie, 62.
Rafa Iddrisu, a 29-year-old trader, who is Amuzu’s wife, had gone to Ashaiman to visit a relative before the horror was visited on her family.
Extra-marital affairs
According to police investigations, the man suspected his wife of having extra-marital affairs and believed the woman and her mother were ‘witches’ who had retarded his progress in life.
Before the dastardly act on Monday evening, DAILY GUIDE gathered that the relationship had been strained because the Lance Corporal had been threatening his wife with murder.
The policeman reportedly abused his wife on several occasions and complaints were lodged with the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service oftentimes.
A couple of months ago, DAILY GUIDE chanced on the couple at the regional DOVVSU office in heated exchanges, where the man openly stated that the children of the woman were not his biological kids.
It took the intervention of some DOVVSU officials and colleagues of the same RDF to calm tempers.
Blow by blow
The policeman was said to have been monitoring his wife and the children since last week after they had relocated.
He made his first entrance to the house over the weekend where he met the children, mother-in-law and the wife and interacted with them.
He reportedly returned on Monday in uniform at about 3:30 pm to harass the woman. A scuffle ensued before he left for work to book for the rifle he allegedly used to murder the family members.
Lance Corporal Amuzu returned in the evening after the booking at the Special Weapons and Tactical (SWAT) Unit of the command for duty. But he was said to have sidetracked to the house.
He reportedly met the mother-in-law bathing the 3-month-old baby boy in a bedroom and opened fire on the woman without any provocation before firing the baby in the basin.
He allegedly moved to another bedroom where he spotted his first child sleeping and also shot him dead before shooting himself in the chest.
Wife’s Account
The wife of the deceased officer, in an interview with DAILY GUIDE, noted that about seven months ago when they were residing at the same police barracks at Kpone, she started having marital problems with her husband and reported the case to the Tema DOVVSU.
According to her, the late husband often assaulted her and once threatened to kill her with a knife and a screw driver after accusing her of having extra-marital affairs and working spiritually against him.
“He said I was bewitching him, which caused him to experience some burning sensation like a burning rubber on his hand,” Rafa Iddrisu disclosed.
She claimed that the DOVVSU officers advised them to live at separate places, adding that the late husband was asked to provide shelter for her and the children but he said he needed time to raise money for rent.
“So I decided to go and look for an uncompleted room behind DEVTRACO where my children and I were staying. Some residents of the area gave details of my location to my husband who came and asked the owner of the house to eject us and the owner also did that.
“I informed my pastor about the ejection and he asked a member of the church to help me with accommodation. An elder of the church was able to help us with an apartment where the incident occurred,” sobbing Rafa Iddrisu recalled.
“When I returned from Ashaiman, I saw plenty cars around the house so I enquired from a neighbour, who asked me to run to my house because there was something happening there. I rushed to the house only to see the police conveying my mother into a car. I rushed inside and saw my children also dead with my husband,” wife of the late Amuzu narrated with tears.
Elder Joseph Akwesi Quansah, the caretaker of the house in which the heinous crime was perpetrated, explained to DAILY GUIDE that he gave the woman and her family shelter upon a request by their pastor last Thursday.
According to him, he travelled to his village in the Brong-Ahafo Region and upon his return, he received a distress call from his wife about the incident.
“I rushed home but some residents asked me not to enter the house because they had heard some shots there,” he pointed out.
The caretaker said he immediately lodged a complaint with the DEVTRACO Police Station and personnel stormed the house and they found the lifeless bodies of the children, the mother of his church member and the policeman.
Some residents, who spoke with DAILY GUIDE, noted that they spotted the policeman with his helmet in his hand gallivanting in the area which raised much suspicion, until the incident took place.
Meanwhile, the Homicide Unit of the Tema Regional Police Command has taken over investigation into the matter.
