A close friend to the family of five who died in the suspected acid attack in Koforidua says the deceased father had accused his wife on of infidelity on countless occasions.

According to Ama Larbi, Kwesi Asare had been monitoring his wife's phone calls since he returned from abroad.

“He would monitor his wife’s phone conversations and confront some male customers who came to buy from her. Kwesi would tell everyone in the neighbourhood that his wife was cheating on him but he had no evidence to support his claims,” Ama told Joy News’ Kofi Siaw.

Background

A family of five died after a suspected acid attack in Yaw Kyeremakrom, a suburb of Koforidua in the Eastern region.

Some residents had claimed that they overheard Kwesi Asare, 50, threatening to kill his wife, Maa Jane, believed to be in her 40s.

According to Joy News’ Kofi Siaw, residents found the burnt bodies of the man, his wife and his three children (Ellen 15 years, Edmund, 7years and Ohene 4years) in their room.

They described Jane as a very hardworking and caring woman. She lived happily with her children in the house until her husband returned from Spain about a year ago and joined them.

Family friend's account

Ama Larbi, who had been close to the family, said the couple had been going through some financial crisis after the man returned. She believes the escalation of the problem in the past few days might have caused the tragedy.

“I asked her why her husband had returned from Spain empty handed but she told me to drop the conversation each time I raised it. He kept on bothering her with money issues,”  Ama told Joy News.

She said Jane supported the family with money from her second-hand clothing business.

“Just recently, Kwesi said he needed about GhÈ» 10,000 to travel to Tamale so Jane had applied for a loan at a bank,” she said.

According to Ama, Jane’s jealous husband “suspected her of cheating on him with the banker who was working on the loan. The banker got angry after Kwesi confronted him and cancelled the loan application.”

But Ama Larbi claimed that Janet did not engage in extra marital affairs having known her for about a year.

“We eat and do everything together, Jane was just a nice person, and she was nice to everyone. She never cheated on her husband,” she defended.

Police

Meanwhile, police in the Eastern region say they have been able to gather some relevant information for their investigations but appealed to the public to feed them with more. 

“We appeal to the general public to feed the police with vital information that they think might have caused the death of the family,” Deputy Eastern Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Sergeant Gideon Boateng said.