Our lives don’t matter anymore? Scary!
Two people—a 57-year-old man and his 47-year-old niece—were reportedly shot dead at their home in Sakumono. The preliminary police account points to a financial dispute involving an alleged GH¢500,000 debt.
In March this year, Dr Jesse Amuah, 80, and his wife, Elizabeth Esi Amuah, 64, were allegedly killed in their Asylum Down home. The prosecution’s account presented in court points to a dispute over GH¢1,500 allegedly owed for household chores.
Different circumstances. Different alleged perpetrators. Different victims. Yet both cases leave us confronting one deeply unsettling question:
What is happening to us as a society?
What has happened to our sense of humanness? Our empathy? Our ability to disagree, feel wronged or experience anger, and still recognise that another person’s life is not ours to take?
IS THE FIRST EXPLANATION THE WHOLE STORY?
In the Sakumono killings, conflicting accounts have emerged about the alleged debt and the nature of the financial relationship. These differences must be investigated and reconciled.
In the Amuah case, the prosecution’s account is before the courts, but the public must resist speculation and allow the legal process to establish the facts.
A debt of GH¢500,000 or a dispute over GH¢1,500—neither justifies murder. There are lawful ways to resolve financial and personal disputes. No grievance gives anyone the right to take another person’s life.
But if we are serious about preventing such tragedies, investigations must go beyond identifying suspects and securing prosecutions. They must establish the full circumstances, the history of the relationships, the evidence of motive and the sequence of events that led to these deaths.
A conviction answers the question of legal responsibility. A thorough investigation can also help answer what happened, why it happened, and what might prevent it from happening again.
THE ALARMING HORROR OF THE GHANAIAN MIND
We must ask whether we are becoming increasingly intolerant, vindictive and unable to manage conflict without resorting to violence.
These cases do not define the Ghanaian people. But they demand serious reflection on the conditions that may allow such violence to occur. Are we normalising threats and intimidation? Are people struggling with distress without seeking help or without knowing where help is available? What roles do financial pressure, unresolved grievances, access to weapons or other factors play in particular cases?
These are questions for evidence-based investigation, not assumptions.
MENTAL HEALTH MUST BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY
Ghana must take mental health more seriously: make support accessible, reduce stigma and encourage early intervention.
But mental illness must not become a convenient explanation for violence. We cannot diagnose suspects from headlines, nor should mental-health concerns be used to excuse crimes or diminish victims’ suffering.
Where relevant, investigators should examine psychological and behavioural evidence alongside the other facts. Understanding the circumstances of a crime is not excusing it. It is part of preventing future harm.
WHAT HAPPENS NOW?
We must demand justice for the Atuguba family and the Amuah family. The police must investigate thoroughly, the courts must determine guilt in accordance with the law, and the families must not be left alone to navigate the aftermath.
But our responsibility cannot end with arrests, charges or convictions. Government, law enforcement, mental-health professionals, community leaders and families must confront the wider questions about conflict, empathy, early intervention and the value we place on human life.
We cannot keep treating each horrific case as an isolated spectacle, expressing outrage and moving on.
When a debt, a grievance or a personal dispute ends in murder, the loss is not only borne by the victims’ families. It is a wound to all of us.
What is happening to us? And what are we prepared to do about it?
By: Baaba Hayfron
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