Kumasi hotel killing: Key suspect absent in court over Coronavirus; wife granted bail

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A key suspect involved in the Kumasi hotel shooting incident, Mr Edwin Awuku will still remain in prison custody following the Covid-19 outbreak in Ghana.

It follows a directive by the Chief Justice restricting the movement of remand prisoners standing trial at various courts in order to prevent a possible outbreak of the deadly disease from spreading.

His wife, Belinda Awuku, has also been granted bail by a Kumasi High Court.

The case was subsequently adjourned to April 9, 2020.

Attack

Belinda Awuku while being escorted by the police after court sitting will not escape insults from the grieving family.

It was chaotic outside the court as one of the family members who became infuriated over the court’s decision assaulted the suspect.

Spokesperson of the family who doubles as the complainant in the case Godfred Owusu Afriyie says they are surprised at the turn of events.

“We are very surprised the High Court has granted her bail on the blind side of the lower court. But we are still monitoring proceedings in the coming days”, he said.

Background

The couple is standing trial over the gruesome killing of Comfort Owusu Afriyie a 46-year-old restaurant operator at Asafo, in Kumasi.

Afriyie was last seen on New Year’s Eve but was confirmed dead the following morning at the Cedar Crescent Hotel in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital.

She was lodging in one of the hotel rooms with Edwin Awuku, 42, on January 2, 2020 when the incident occurred at about 1am local time.

An earlier police report sighted by Dailymailgh.com suggested that the suspect and the deceased were both attacked in an armed robbery case while in their hotel room on that fateful day.

Preliminary investigations have, however, revealed that the deceased was shot and killed by her boyfriend, police in the Ashanti Region said in a statement on Tuesday, January 7.

Police have, however, denied an incident of armed robbery attack in the hotel as widely reported.

By Jonathan Ofori, Daily Mail GH