It is provided in the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 Act 29 as follows:
50. Manslaughter
A person who commits manslaughter commits a first degree felony.
51. Definition of manslaughter
A person who causes the death of another person by an unlawful harm commits manslaughter, but if the harm causing the death is caused by negligence that person has not committed manslaughter unless the negligence amount to a reckless disregard for human life.
The Wa High Court, presided over by Justice Alhaji Yussif Asibey, on Wednesday, November 27, 2024, convicted and sentenced a 63-year-old businessman, Yunussah Abdul-Rahaman, to 23 years of hard labour for the killing of two people in Wa.
Abdul-Rahaman was found guilty on two counts of manslaughter and three counts of causing unlawful harm. He shot and killed two people:
Stephen Mane, 64, a retired lecturer from the Hilla Limann Technical University, and Iddris Alhassan, 46, an administrative staff member of the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies.
He also caused harm to three others: Haruna Umar, Hamza Hamid Eransung, and Umar Amish.
Contrary to the two murder charges levelled against the convict, the seven-member jury returned a verdict of manslaughter on the murder charges and unanimously found him guilty on the three counts of causing unlawful harm.
Sentence
Following the jury’s guilty verdict, the court sentenced Abdul-Rahaman to 23 years of hard labour for each of the manslaughter charges and 15 years each for causing unlawful harm.
The sentences are to run concurrently.
In addition to the custodial sentence, Justice Asibey ordered the convict to pay compensation of GH₵40,000.00 to each of the three victims who sustained gunshot wounds.
The court noted that the sentence and compensation were without prejudice to any further civil actions the families of the deceased or the victims might wish to pursue against the convict.
Facts
According to the Principal State Attorney, Abdul-Shaquir Saeed, the incident occurred on March 17, 2022. Abdul-Rahaman received a call from his workers, reporting that some members of his family had prevented them from working on his land at Napogbakole, a suburb of Wa. The land in question was the subject of a dispute between Abdul-Rahaman and his family.
The convict took his Tundra pick-up, with registration number GE-650-13, which contained a pump-action gun, and drove to the site.
At the scene, Abdul-Rahaman fired shots in an attempt to disperse a crowd gathered on the land. However, the bullets struck the two deceased individuals, who were not part of the group involved in the dispute, and injured three others.
Stephen Mane died on the spot, while Iddris Alhassan sustained gunshot wounds and was rushed to the Wa Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
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