The High Court in Accra has sentenced Abdulai Kadiri, a mechanic, to life imprisonment for killing his 9-day-old baby girl at Prampram.
This was after a seven-member jury panel returned a 6-1 majority guilty verdict following a full trial before Justice Mary Maame Ekue Yanzuh.
Kadiri was accused of intentionally pouring a substance believed to be acid into the mouth of the child, Muniratu Awudu, which caused her death.
His girlfriend, Doris Martey, had refused to abort the pregnancy earlier, after a three-month romantic relationship.
The accused person, Abdulai Kadiri (now a convicted individual), was the boyfriend of Doris Martey, with whom he began an amorous relationship in 2020.
It was the case of the prosecution that, about three months into the relationship, she found out she was pregnant and informed the accused person.
However, the convict, who appeared unhappy about it, immediately opted for abortion. Nevertheless, she refused to abort the pregnancy.
The prosecution said the accused person called his girlfriend the following day, claiming he had paid a doctor at the Tema General Hospital to abort the pregnancy, but she still refused.
The accused person stopped visiting his girlfriend after she refused his request to abort the pregnancy.
However, the girlfriend would occasionally call the accused person for financial assistance when going for antenatal care, which he sometimes provided, but often accompanied by insults.
The girlfriend subsequently delivered the baby on June 9, 2021, at Prampram Polyclinic and called the accused person several times, but he refused to answer her calls.
The prosecution said the girlfriend then asked her sister, who owned a shop close to the accused person, to inform him of the child’s birth and the need for financial assistance.
The accused person sent her GH¢400 for hospital bills, and she was discharged on June 12, 2021.
On June 15, 2021, the accused person called his girlfriend on her sister’s phone and later sent her GH¢350 for some customary rites to enable him to name the child and also keep the rest for feeding.
On June 16, 2021, the accused person called her and gave the baby the name Muniratu Awudu.
On June 17, 2021, the prosecution said the girlfriend finished breastfeeding the baby and placed her on a pillow in a chair while her oldest daughter, aged 6, played around.
The accused person then arrived unexpectedly.
The prosecution stated that the girlfriend was surprised to see him because he had not informed her of his visit.
They both walked to the baby, who had started crying, and she picked up the baby and asked him to carry her.
The accused person sat on the chair and collected the baby, but asked that they go into the room.
The prosecution stated that the baby was calm in his arms as they entered her room, and he sat on a plastic chair with the baby on his lap.
Because she lived alone and the accused person was around, she took the opportunity to rush and take her bath, which was just behind her room.
A few minutes later, the prosecution said that while in the bathroom, she heard a loud cry from the baby. She quickly cleaned herself and rushed out, only to find her baby in the accused person’s hand with a discoloured mouth.
Her sister, who was standing with the accused person, kept asking him what he had given to the baby, and he said the child was vomiting. However, they realised it was not vomit, so they rushed the baby to the Prampram Polyclinic.
At the clinic, they were told the baby had been given a corrosive substance suspected to be acid because the substance had burned her mouth and torn the cloth in which the baby was wrapped.
They were referred to the Tema General Hospital and later to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, where the child was admitted but died on June 24, 2021.
Esther Fafa Tetteh, a Senior State Attorney from the office of the Attorney General, led the prosecution.
Lawyers represented the accused.
