BUSTED! Okyere Baffuor
The 28-year-old man who brutally killed his wife at Degede, a suburb of Bibiani in the Bibiani Anhwiaso Bekwai District in the Western North Region on August 5, before fleeing, has been arrested by the police.
Emmanuel Okyere Baffuor is also on the radar of the police for the disappearance of a nursing student called Eva Boahemaa in November 2016 in Offinso in the Ashanti Region.
The suspect was apprehended at Oforikrom, a suburb of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region upon a tip-off on Wednesday evening.
Suicide Attempt
The Bibiani Anhwiaso Bekwai Divisional Crime Officer, Supt. Seth Sewornu confirmed the arrest, and said the suspect attempted to commit suicide by trying to drink a poisonous substance but the police pounced on him to avert any trouble.
He said that the Bibiani police collaborated with their counterparts from the Manhyia Divisional Command to arrest the suspect.
A picture of Okyere Baffuor in handcuffs emerged showing him holding a bottle with a green lid, which the police said contained a poisonous substance he had tried to drink to end his life in an apparent attempt to escape justice for the gruesome murder.
Okyere Baffuor was declared wanted by the Bibiani police following the murder of Joyce Johnes Afi Jessica, and Supt. Serwonu said they were preparing to transport him to Bibiani from Kumasi to continue the investigations.
He thanked the people of Bibiani, particularly those who gave the tip-off to the police which led to the arrest of the suspect, saying “The people should continue to cooperate with the police to expose miscreants in our midst.”
Serial Killer
The police in 2016 declared Okyere Baffuor wanted following the disappearance of a nursing trainee.
Telltale evidence suggested that the suspect allegedly ‘vanished’ with a nursing student whose name was given as Eva Boahemaa, somewhere in November 2016, and the lady has never been seen since then.
Eva, who was a student of St. Patrick Nursing and Midwifery Training College at Offinso in the Ashanti Region, was said to be the girlfriend of Okyere Baffuor at the time she got missing.
Social media posts of friends of Eva, who is feared dead, appear to have exposed the activities of Okyere Baffuor, now arrested.
Eva’s Disappearance
When the student disappeared, there was a Police Missing Persons’ Report issued from the Offinso Divisional CID in 2016, confirming the case.
The police report said Eva was a native of Bekwai in the Ashanti Region and was 23 years of age, and her height was given as 5.5 feet.
The report also said she is dark in complexion with medium eyes, small ears and stoutly built.
It said Eva had two tribal marks on the left cheek and the dress in which she was last seen was a pink blouse over white skirt.
The police gave her occupation as a student.
According to the police report, Eva could speak Twi and English, and the date, time and place where she was last seen was November 4, 2016 at 15:30 hours at St. Patrick’s Midwifery Campus, Offinso.
The police said the circumstances under which Eva went missing was that she left the school for Ashanti-Bekwai on vacation and has since not been seen, and gave the suspect’s name as Okyere Baffuor.
It later turned out that Okyere Baffuor was once based in Italy and was believed to be the suitor of Eva.
Eva’s Father
Five months after she went missing, Eva’s father, Yaw Manu, had granted an interview and said that one Okyere Baffuor in 2015 proposed to marry the nursing student via video call but she turned him down to concentrate on schooling.
Later in the same year, Okyere Baffuor who claims to be a native of Essumenya visited Ghana but moved to stay with them at Bekwai for two months.
A marriage deal was then sealed and traditional knocking rites performed subsequently.
Okyere Baffuor promised to come back to Ghana in December of 2017 to perform the marriage rites.
But surprisingly, he showed up a month earlier in school on a day the school was going on break and picked up Eva, ostensibly to take her home.
Information available suggests Eva was suspicious and questioned Baffuor about the timing of his visit. Nonetheless, she joined the man and has since not been seen.
Facebook Expose
Eva’s friends, who are now practicing nurses, posted her picture and identified Okyere Baffuor in the background as the same person who had just killed his wife.
They said “this is the same guy who was with our friend Eva before she went missing five years ago. He is the same guy who has married elsewhere and is being sought after by the police for killing his wife in Bibiani.”
Some have said that at Bibiani, Okyere Baffuor claims he had returned from Dubai.
Matrimonial Home
Back in his matrimonial home in Western North, Okyere Baffuor was said to have treated his wife inhumanely, including subjecting her to severe beatings.
Sources say he could even urinate into a Don Simon tetra pack for his wife to drink, and when she could no longer bear the inhumane treatment, she decided to divorce him.
The wife gathered courage and left the matrimonial home but her family and her pastor allegedly persuaded her to get back with him.
Wife’s Murder
Following the gruesome murder, police preliminary investigations revealed that the victim decided to divorce the suspect over myriad of issues.
Supt. Seth Serwonu, Bibiani Anhwiaso Bekwai Divisional Crime Officer, told journalists that the husband begged the wife to stay explaining that he had turned a new leaf, but the lady insisted that she was walking out of the marriage.
The woman subsequently packed her belongings and left the husband’s house to live with her parents.
On Thursday, August 5, 2021, at about 12 noon, the suspect went to the wife’s parents’ house at a time the parents were not around and purportedly attacked the wife with a knife in her room.
The man allegedly stabbed the wife five times, killing her on the spot, and covered the body with clothes in the room and absconded.
From I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi & Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi