An abusive marriage ended on a painful note last Saturday as the mother, her five children and a grandchild were burnt to death in suspected arson.

At the centre of it is the woman’s husband and the children’s father, Yaw Afriyie, who abused his family at will, spent time in jail for inflicting wounds on two of his children, and yet showed no signs of slowing down.

Afriyie was found hanging from a tree in a suspected case of suicide that has shocked the Central Region.

The horrifying fire incident, suspected to have been deliberately set by the estranged husband, claimed the lives of his wife, their five children and a grandchild at Akyempim in the Upper Denkyira East Municipality in the Central Region.

Firefighters were called in at 1:04 a.m., got to the scene in 16 minutes, but found the bedroom engulfed in flames and padlocked from the outside.

The officers, however, doused the fire in 12 minutes, but the act was too late to save a single life inside.

The Fire Service said the charred bodies of the victims were later handed over to the police at Atekyem for further investigation.

A statement from the police described the incident as “deeply tragic” and urged the public to remain vigilant and practise fire safety at all times.

The bodies, now at the Dunkwa Municipal Government Hospital mortuary, would be handed over to the families for burial after post-mortem.

Afriyie was said to be having potency issues and had suspected his wife of adultery.

The fire victims, the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) said, comprised five children, aged between seven months and 15 years, an older daughter and their mother.

Preliminary investigations by the GNFS and the police suggest that the estranged husband, Yaw Afriyie, intentionally started the fire in the room where his family was sleeping.

Afriyie, aka Batman, is alleged to have locked the door from the outside to prevent them from escaping the furnace before fleeing the scene.

His body was later found hanging from a tree after supposedly taking his own life in a nearby bush on the outskirts of Akyempim, where the police discovered the body.

Information gathered by the Daily Graphic indicated that Afriyie, a farmer and small-scale miner, had been married to Ama Dapaah for more than a decade.

That marriage, the newspaper gathered, had a history of abuse.

A source told the Daily Graphic that Afriyie had abused his wife and the children several times over the years, with the incidents increasing more recently.

The source stated that Afriyie had spent three months in jail recently for causing life-threatening injuries to two of his children.

The injuries to the children, the eyewitness said, happened because the wife escaped a weapon thrown at her that landed on them.

They were hospitalised at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital for months.

The source said the abuse caused Ama Dapaah to move out of her matrimonial home to her parents’, also at Akyempim, after several mediation efforts to get Afriyie to desist from the violent acts proved futile.

His sense of insecurity appeared to increase daily, with the tempo of abuse rising at every turn in a family that gained notoriety for the regular feud.

The Upper Denkyira East Municipal Commander of Police, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Simon Boavo, corroborated the story, stating that Ms Dapaah had appealed for mercy for Afriyie after he was sentenced, explaining that he was the breadwinner.

He said the woman urged the court to temper justice with mercy, compelling the court to sentence him to only three months in jail.

DSP Boavo said after his jail term, Afriyie reunited with his wife and family, but the abuse continued.

After mediation failed, the families advised Ms Dapaah to move to her family's house with the children.

DSP Boavo recounted eyewitness accounts that indicated that Afriyie had chanced upon Ama Dapaah outside her home around 12 midnight on the day of the incident, and questioned her about why she was still in town at that time of the night when the children were asleep.

He was said to have urged her to go and sleep and even escorted her to the house.

DSP Boavo said neighbours and family members had also told the police that the estranged husband had threatened to kill Ama Dapaah any time and then commit suicide before the enstoolment of the new Denkyirahene, but indicated that no one reported the matter to the police, describing the incident as unfortunate.