Father inflicts razor blade wounds on son, 4 over chicken wings

A 35-year-old mechanic, Mr Anthony Adjei, has been arrested by the Weija Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service for allegedly inflicting razor blade wounds on the hands of his four-year-old son at New Weija.

Mr Adjei has been charged for causing harm to the boy, who sustained deep cuts on his right arm and was abandoned to his fate until a good Samaritan visited the family and saw the wounds.

The boy, already a school dropout, and other siblings live with only the father and an aunt after their mother allegedly vacated her matrimonial home last year.

What happened?

Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Public Relations Officer of the Accra Regional Police Command, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Effia Tenge, said police investigations established that the victim's mother absconded from the matrimonial home to an unknown destination in 2019 due to abuses she reportedly suffered at the hands of Mr Adjei.

Last Sunday, she said, a friend of the family visited them and saw the boy with wounds on his hands.

The visitor, whose name has been withheld by the police, questioned the four-year-old boy about his injury, and he told her the wounds were inflicted by his father.

The boy, she said, explained to the visitor that he was hungry the previous night so he took and ate a piece of chicken wings that had been kept in their fridge.

Mr Adjei is said to have been angry at the son for taking the meat without permission even though the boy had explained that he was hungry and there was no food while both the father and the aunt were not at home.

Mr Adjei reportedly took a razor blade and inflicted the wounds on the boy's arm apparently to teach him and his siblings  a lesson so they do not repeat the act.

Mrs Tenge said the visitor then took the boy to the Weija DOVVSU and reported the incident to the police.

The father of the victim was arrested while the boy was taken to the Police Hospital for treatment.

Mrs Tenge said efforts were also underway to trace the victim's mother.