Your accusation comes from years of bitterness – Lawyer defends man who ‘shot’ his wife

Counsel for the man who allegedly shot his seven-month pregnant wife in her sleep insists that it is out of sheer bitterness that the mother of the victim is accusing her son-in-law of being behind the crime.

Seeking to exonerate his client during cross-examination, James Anum, told the court that it is out of bitterness, anger and pain that Benita’s mother [Agnes Yirenkyi] is accusing Effort Dankwa

“I am suggesting to you that it is out of bitterness about the accused not doing enough to support your daughter, financially, after the said incident.

“Effort Dankwa’s inability to support your daughter after she put to birth is the reason you are telling this court that he is the one who shot your daughter,” Mr Anum told the court presided over by Justice Mary M.E. Nsenkyire,

Mrs Yirenkyi, however, maintained that is not the case, adding that the accused did not even support the wife even emotionally.

“He did not even come to the hospital after the incident. He did not make any attempt to come to the hospital,” she said in evidence at Accra High Court.

Still wanting to corner the witness, Counsel for the accused said it was the mother of the victim who had prevented her son-in-law from making provision for his wife by taking her into hiding at Dansoman.

“That is so but it was because of the situation and circumstances surrounding the way she was shot, we did not know who had committed the crime, so we were just trying to protect our daughter by taking her away from the hospital.

“But when we got to my brother’s house at Dansoman, I personally called the accused [Effort Dankwa] to inform him, but he never showed up neither did he show any interest in knowing the exact location [of his wife],” Mrs Yirenkyi stressed.

Mr Anum further argued that the accused had tried to support financially by bringing money to the accused mother at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, but was turned away by the family.

“Yes, that is true my Lady, the accused came with other elders to the hospital, but it was a long time so I don’t remember whether I accepted it or not,” she noted.

The case continues on July 2, 2020.

Background of the story

Effort Dankwa, 36, is alleged to have shot and paralysed his wife in 2016. He was charged with attempted murder.

He was arrested in 2016 after police investigations identified him as the prime suspect in an attack on his wife, Benita Dankwa, who was then 29.

Benita was seven months pregnant at the time the incident occurred. She was shot in the chest, in what she believed was an attempt by her husband to kill her.

She did not die but the attack left her paralysed. She gave birth prematurely to save herself and her baby.

Investigations by the police suggested there was no break into her house the night of the attack.

The only person she spent the night with was her husband.

Mrs. Benita Dankwa survived a ferocious attack while she was eight months pregnant. Her baby, who is now four years old survived the incident.