Mason jailed for attacking boy with a shovel

A 42-year-old mason, Godfred Attu has been jailed for attacking a teenager with a shovel over a Forty Ghana cedis debt owed him.

Mr. Attu said an Accra High Court sentenced him to two years imprisonment when he defaulted in the payment of a court fine of Six Thousand Ghana cedis for his crime.

Narrating what led to his incarceration, he said he also undertook menial jobs when he did not have mason jobs.

Mr. Attu said after he was done with one of the menial jobs and was going to demand his wage, he met the victim who hooted at him.

The inmate said eager to claim his wage, he insisted on meeting the man who engaged his services but did not see him.

He said one of the occupants of a room in which his victim was, opted to give him Twenty Ghana cedis instead of the Forty Ghana cedis owed him but he refused to leave the house.

“When I went to the house where the man supposed to pay me lived, I met about ten boys including the victim in a room. When he saw me he was shouting at me and tried to drive me away,” he said.

The frail-looking man claimed that the victim reached for a ‘2 by 4’ wood and smacked his knee with it.

 Attu said when the victim attempted to hit him again but this time on his face, he blocked the wood with a shovel he was holding which unfortunately whacked the victim’s face injuring him.

“I was only defending myself so when I blocked the wood with the shovel, it slipped and hit the boy’s face. The injury was not severe but he bled profusely. That day I had taken a little of local alcoholic gin,” he said.

He said he was arrested and was kept in police custody for three days before he was arraigned before court.

Mr. Attu said the court fined him Six Thousand Ghana cedis, which he defaulted earning him a twenty-four months jail term.

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