Butchered Woman Cries For Help

Three years ago, Bernice Fosua was severely assaulted by Francis Appiah, her landlord's brother, at Ejisu in the Ashanti region but has continuously been denied justice and not even the Attorney General's Department has been able to get the wheels of justice to speed up on her behalf. In an interview with The Saturday Statesman last Friday in Kumasi, she recalled the ill treatment meted out to her by the officials of the Attorney General's Department in Kumasi when she went to inquire why there has been delay in the hearing of her case. This paper gathered that the Ejisu Police Command arrested the culprit and charged him with manslaughter. The case, commenced at Kumasi High Court Three, and was presided over by Justice Abraham. The case was later transferred to High Court Six. After initial hearings, the case was moved out of Court Three to Court Two for reasons still unexplained. Meanwhile, the family of the accused have obtained a report from the Psychiatric hospital stating that he was insane, and he has since been granted bail. This reporter gathered that this act was not the first to have been carried out by Francis Appiah. Information from the Ejisu Police indicated that the accused person has been nicknamed 'professional human butcher' in the town. He is said to have inflicted severe cuts on three men some years ago but all the cases were solved out of court because of the backing he gets from his family. Narrating her ordeal to The Saturday Statesman, Bernice Fosua said she decided to raise poultry in her rented Ejisu residence in the early part of 2004 to help cater for some of her financial needs but before long, she discovered that her fowls were missing. She conducted investigations and realised that Francis Appiah stole the fowls. She confronted the accused who confirmed that he let them loose since they (fowls) constitute a nuisance. In her words, “his next action after the approach was to ask me to vacate the house or he would do it by force. Because I had no money to rent a house then, I pleaded with him to give me some time, but he wouldn't listen". She said the next day, the accused chased her out with a machete. At a point she tripped and fell and the accused inflicted several machete cuts, leading to her collapse. Onlookers rushed her to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital for treatment. Though she regained consciousness, the injuries to her veins caused blood to stop flowing into some parts of her body. She is therefore calling on the Minister for Justice and the Attorney General to hear her case. "I cannot afford the hospital bills any more and 1 need justice for my predicaments" she concluded.