From Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, Sekondi
A galamsey operator in a mining community, Kaniankor, near Nsuayem in the Wassa West District of the Western Region, who could not manage the departure of his fiancee, allegedly inflicted machete wounds on the woman leaving her unconscious.
The young woman survived thanks to some onlookers who acted with dispatch and went to her rescue after her assailant had left her to her fate at a public place where the sordid act took place.
The man whose name was given as Yaw Jayarko Sofo, an illegal miner, is currently at large and the police are seriously pursuing him to face the full rigours of the law.
The police said when people started shouting, Sofo took to his heels leaving the woman in a pool of blood.
Speaking to The Mirror at her bedside at the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital at Sekondi, the victim, Sarah Arthur, a 21-year-old petty trader, said she had been living with Sofo for the past four years even though he had not paid the bride price. She said she later got pregnant and therefore continued to live with him after she had given birth.
She said, “I have persistently impressed upon him to go and see my parents, but he did not express the desire to perform the marital rites. Worse of all, he also refused to take any responsibility for expenses in the house. Anytime I threatened to go away or a quarrel ensued he threatened me with death.
“That notwithstanding, he also subjects me to constant molestation and I am but a young girl. I have realised that I have made a mistake in accepting his proposal”, she lamented.
She added, “I made several reports to the police about his threats but nothing had been done until he descended on me last week”.
The victim recalled that on the day of the incident, she went to the Agona Market. When she returned home, Sofo had smashed all the crates of eggs she had bought for sale. She told him he would have to pay for the broken eggs.
“I got angry and some people in the vicinity advised me to report his conduct to the police. I was then hungry so I decided to go and buy some fried yams first, before deciding on what to do next”, she said.
“Just as I was in the process of buying the yams with my back turned towards the street and with the yam seller also busy attending to me, Sofo came from behind and started hacking me with a machete. I did not know what happened next but I was later told by some sympathisers that had it not been for the intervention of some onlookers I would likely have been hacked to pieces,” she added.
She fell unconscious only to wake up at the hospital in pain and regret for having accepted to go into a relationship with a violent man she did not know very well.
“He told me a number of times that he had killed before and I will not be the first person he was going to kill, therefore I should be careful,” she revealed.
Asked if she would go back to the man, she took a deep breath and replied: “I have made a huge mistake and would not like to repeat it. I will go on with my life, but as for the assault the law enforcement agencies should look for him and deal with him appropriately”, she added.
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