How flatulence in prison cell pushes convict to confess

Among the many difficulties convicts face in prison, the main challenge for a Winneba Local Prison convict, Kobina Agyire is flatulence.

The 45-year-old man was jailed for stealing cassava from his nephew’s farm.
The Ajumako District Magistrate court sentenced him to six months imprisonment to serve at the Local Prison.

For the few weeks Agyire had been in prison he had to contend with unbearable farting from his cellmates.

During an interview with crimecheckghana.org, the worried prisoner had to divert the attention of the Executive Director of Crime Check Foundation (CCF), Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng to the disturbing incident, which he could no longer withstand.

“Because the prison cells are congested, we have to arrange ourselves in a manner that can accommodate all of us. One person’s buttocks are positioned towards the other’s face in that order. The cell will be full of flatulence. We will be farting all around.,” Agyire registered his displeasure.

“Someone farted hard on my face and I also did it to someone else,” he said.

Agyire had earlier intimated that he did not steal the tubers of cassava. According to him, he harvested them from his nephew’s farm to cook for his ailing sister.

After pressing him further, he confessed to stealing a mini-sack full of cassava and selling it for Twenty Ghana cedis.

“I have stolen two times from my nephew’s farm but I thought she would not let them jail me,” he told crimecheckghana.org.

The Ajumako Magistrate Court fined him One Thousand Two hundred Ghana cedis.

Agyire ended up in prison because he could not pay his fine. He has however been released after Crime Check Foundation paid his fine.

By Rudolph Nandi