A 22-year-old woman lost her life in a gunshot incident at Kenyase-Abrem in the Ashanti Region while returning home from the 31st December watch night service.
According to the family of the deceased, the tragic incident happened when Lydia Ayampali, a mother carrying her one-year-old baby, had closed from the watch night service and was returning home in a tricycle with two other passengers.
Reports gathered by Citi News indicate that Lydia was shot in the head during the journey, while the gunshot residue affected the child.
She was later rushed to the Okomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital but was pronounced dead upon arrival.
The tricycle driver, Alhassan Seidu Abubakar, narrated the gruesome scene to Citi News, saying, “I was around Abrem station when these two ladies came to board the tricycle. Immediately I took off, I heard a loud sound. I thought it was a knockout [firecracker]. I did not know it was a gunshot. But I felt the heat on my neck, so I stopped the tricycle and checked my back and realized the lady had been shot.”
“I got scared and I screamed. That was the time the other lady realized something had happened to her sister. At that moment I couldn’t do anything, so a guy helped me carry them in his car, and we took her to the nearest hospital, but they said it was an emergency, so they asked us to take her to Manhyia Hospital. But when we got there, they also said we should take her to Okomfo Anokye Hospital, so when we got there, the doctors confirmed that she was dead.”
Lydia’s uncle, Yaw Ghaatoun, said, “We heard that the person responsible for this is a fetish priest, and this is not the first time he has shot someone. Ours is the third of its kind.”
Mr. Ghaatoun added that the culprit has been remanded in custody for two weeks.
The father of the deceased, Kwame Bohitana, who expressed sadness, told Citi News that the court has ordered the family to return to court in two weeks.
The sorrowful family members are calling on authorities for justice.