Warning shot averts Mentally Challenged Student From killing family Members 

The Akim Oda Police in the Birim Central Municipality of the Eastern Region of Ghana has arrested a 26-year-old mentally challenged student of the University of Professional Studies, (UPSA), for threatening to kill his family members for bewitching him.

The student, identified as Benjamin Asihene, a level 400 Bsc Accounting student reported to be out of school for over six months due to his ill health which caused fear and panic amongst family members and other residents last night when he chased out his relatives at a gunpoint from a two-storey building at Akyem Oda.

The Public Relations Officer of the Eastern Regional Police Command, DSP Ebenezer Tetteh told Journalists that, “At about 12:48 am, police had information about a man armed with a pistol on a storey building on Oda town threatening to shoot People at the scene around the total filing station at Oda.

Police saw a bare-chested young man wielding a black pistol and standing on the corridor of the last floor of the two-Storey family house in Oda. He was said to have threatened to kill all his family members. The family members were then vacated and called for help”.

“When the police gave a warning shot, the suspect removed the magazine and dropped the pistol and the magazine to the ground. He refused to come down unless he saw his girlfriend, a fetish priest, and his sister living in Accra. He however came down when one of his brothers came down and persuaded him. Later he was persuaded and taken to the police station”.

DSP Ebenezer Tetteh opined that “Preliminary Investigations indicate that the 26-year-old Benjamin Asihene Date of Birth is correct and in level 400, reading Bsc accounting at the University of Professional Studies, (UPS) in Accra"

"He came from Accra six months ago and is yet to return back to Accra, adding that he is reported to exhibit an unstable mental condition. He has been once sent to Ankaful Psychiatric hospital for treatment but all efforts have proved futile”.

The suspect is likely to be sent back to the psychiatric hospital for treatment and rehabilitation.

William Ofori Akwaboa, Eastern Regional Correspondent