EXCLUSIVE: Trotro driver ends love story with acid attack

A jealous boyfriend who was jilted by his 27-year-old lover has poured acid on the beautiful lady’s face, leaving her with permanent facial damage.

Fredrick Nii Abbey, a 36-year-old ‘trotro’ driver, attempted to end the life of Florence Ofeibea Aryee, 27, but she survived.

On Tuesday, May 4, 2021, at Oshiyie in the Ga South Municipality, the incident occurred at the blind side of the lady who had gone to take her bath.

Fredrick carried out the violent assault without a second thought after the lady rejected an apology from him for throwing her out.

The two unmarried lovers had been together for eight years and moved in to live together at Abeka during the April 2020 lockdown.

Their relationship produced two girls aged five and three as they cohabited in a rented room by the boyfriend.

In February 2021, Fredrick threw out the belongings of Florence, stating she was not a “marriage material”.

Florence, who was learning a trade in hairdressing, had to put up with friends together with the children.

Later, she confronted Fredrick about shirking his responsibilities in taking care of the kids.

According to Florence, her boyfriend said there was no way he would give her money, so she decided to take the children to the boyfriend’s mother.

She later moved to Oshiyie to take care of her sick father.

On Monday, May 3, Fredrick showed up out of the blue to apologise for his actions.

Even though Florence and her father accepted the apology, she declined to continue the relationship with Fredrick.

Feeling disappointed, Fredrick returned the following day with acid in a bottle which was concealed in a bag.

Florence was adamant, insisting she would have nothing to do with him.

When the lady’s father got some visitors, Fredrick exited the room but never left the father’s residence.

As the lady entered a bathroom located on the same compound, Fredrick, who had hidden nearby, followed and threw an acid-like substance on the face of Florence.

The acid started burning her immediately.

“I couldn’t open my eyes. I cried out for help,” recounted.

Neighbours rushed to the scene as the corrosive liquid shredded her facial skin.

Fortunately, there was minimal direct contact to the eyes, so she escaped blindness.

The youth in the vicinity apprehended Fredrick and sent him to the Weija Police Station.

At the same time, the victim was rushed to the hospital, after which she was transferred to the Greater Accra Regional Hospital.

“I was at the point of death,” Florence narrated to theghanareport.com as she indicated that close to GHC 43,000 had been spent on treatment and medications.

She is alive, but the scars created by the chemical burns are likely to remain on her face.

She had to remain on the treatment bed for two weeks, covered in bandages with unbearable pain.

A relative followed up on the case at the police station, and swift action by the cops resulted in prosecution.

The Weija Circuit Court sentenced Fredrick to 10 years in jail after pleading guilty to the charges.

Love turns sour acid attacks

Acids are inexpensive, easily accessible and sold without regulation in Ghana.

Former Greater Accra PRO of the Ghana Prisons Service, ASP James Annan, had called for legislative reforms to guide the use or sale of hazardous chemicals.

“It is unfortunate to admit that there are no specific laws in Ghana that regulate the sale of dangerous chemicals, especially concentrated sulphuric, hydrochloric, and nitrate acids,” he lamented.

Furthermore,  he called for harsher punishment, such as higher custodial sentences to serve as deterrence.

“In my opinion, acid violence should be classified as a major offence and, as such, must call for higher sentences not excluding life imprisonment,” he explained.

Most of the victims are women, as so much importance is placed on their physical appearance.

Attackers usually target the face, which is the most cherished part of a woman.

Permanent damage to the face becomes a public mark of shame, resentment and low self-esteem.

The majority of such victims find it hard to find love and nearly impossible to get married.

In 2016, the Director of National Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, estimated 10 acid attack cases are received annually at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

More than 90 per cent of these cases, he said, were from assaults and “usually from relationships that have gone bad”.

ActionAid, a global justice network working to achieve social justice, gender equality and poverty eradication, estimates 1,500 acid attacks a year worldwide but most often go unreported.

Acid attacks are not limited to Ghana, with many cases in Nigeria and South Africa.

Advanced countries like the US and UK are not exempt from such attacks.

In July 2017, the BBC’s George Mann reported that police statistics showed that: “Assaults involving corrosive substances have more than doubled in England since 2012. The vast majority of cases were in London.”

The case of Fredrick and Florence is one of many that has occurred in Ghana, with some perpetrators escaping punishment.

In 2016, Esther Enyonam Akosua Pekyi was arrested seven months after throwing acid at his boyfriend at Madina.

The police arrested the 23-year-old woman after he attempted to harm Eric Ohemeng, a 25-year-old third-year student of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) after Eric decided to break up their relationship.

Esther was arrested at Dansoman when she got down from a taxi to meet her ex-lover while the police laid an ambush.

She is said to have been disguising herself with a veil around her head and believed to have initially absconded to Togo and then to Aflao in the Volta Region.

The suspect, who also cut her long hair and changed her mobile phone contact, is said to have later moved to Kasoa, where she was hiding until her boyfriend, with the help of the police, arranged a meeting with her, leading to her arrest.

The same year, a woman in the Western Region suffered severe chemical burns after her ex-lover Philip Oppong doused her with acid for leaving him.

According to Abena, his reason was that if he cannot have her, then nobody can.

37-year-old Abena Konadu narrated her ordeal to Adom FM.

According to her, after leaving Oppong, he tried several tactics to get back in her life, but she foiled them all because she was determined not to get back with him due to his quick temper.

In January 2020, a 16-year-old student of Kumasi Senior High Technical School (KSTS) was hospitalised after her boyfriend poured acid on her.

The incident occurred shortly after her birthday.

The jealous boyfriend decided to end the girl’s life because he couldn’t stand the pain to see his girlfriend with another person.

The same year, an 18-year-old girl and her mother were hospitalised after an acid attack allegedly by a 54-year-old man.

The suspect, Nana Yaw Mante, allegedly poured the acid on his 18-year-old ex-girlfriend and mother while in a room at Awukugua in the Okere District of the Eastern Region.