Court acquits driver accused for bathing friend with acid

An Accra Circuit Court has acquitted and discharged a 40-year-old driver Peter Torvineku who was accused of pouring acid on his friend during an argument over the election petition hearing in 2013.

The judge, Francis Obiri found him innocent because the evidence adduced did not link Torvineku to the crime.

He said there is no doubt that the crime was committed but Torvineku cannot be held for it.

The court took the decision following evidence by a prosecution witness who also sustained some acid burns, that the driver did not commit the offence and named one Samuel Obeng Gyasi who is currently at large as the culprit.

According to facts presented in court in August 2013, the complainant was weeding a parcel of land when Torvineku and Gyasi approached him and asked his opinion on the election petition then pending at the Supreme Court.

The complainant retorted that they should leave him alone and let peace prevail in the country, but his response did not go down well with the suspect and his accomplice who left the scene in anger.

Hours later, Torvineku and Gyasi returned to the complainant, who was still working on the land, to engage him in a hot argument with the intention of forcing him to declare his stand on the election petition hearing. 

The complainant then asked them to leave the area and this further provoked the two, resulting in the acid attack on him.

GBC