Papa Nyamekye the greedy man
Once upon a time, in a village called Kofikrom lived a man, Opanyin Anokye, with his wife Abena Buor, and their three children.
Opanyin Anokye was a very respected man in his village because he was one of the few farmers who cultivated crops in large quantities.
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He was a wealthy man who had a great vision to expand his business. Unfortunately, he fell ill to a terminal disease so he did not live long to see his dream come to pass.
He died leaving behind his wife and three children - Kofi, Afia and Kwaku.
Fortunately, before he died, he made a will stating how his properties should be shared in case of any eventuality as such, this was carried through.
A large part of his properties went to his wife and children as stated in the will and something appreciable to his extended family headed by Papa Nyamekye.
Unfortunately, Papa Nyamekye felt that it was the family’s resources that was used to help Opanyin Anokye to go to school when he was young and also start his business later, therefore, the family, especially he, deserved more than what had been allocated to them.
He wanted a particular piece of land that was for Opanyin Anokye’s children.
He first took the case to court where he claimed that particular land belonged to the family so if Papa Anokye was dead, then it was right that it was returned to them.
However, the court ruled against him that if the family had any issue regarding that property, they should have contested it when the deceased was alive and should not have waited after his death.
Besides, it was a property bequeathed to the children in a will so there was no way they could do anything about it. For wasting their time, the court imposed a fine on him.
Embarrassed by the ruling, Papa Nyamekye threatened Maame Abena Buor and the children to use any means available to reclaim the property from them.
Through a friend, Papa Nyamekye hired some assassins to kill the children. However, he did not have any picture of the children to show to the assassins for them to know exactly who to kill.
Therefore, he agreed with them that he would lure the children to the disputed land the following day in the morning so the first three people they would see on the land that day would be their target.
Having reached that agreement with the assassins on phone, he went ahead to arrange for the three children of Opanyin Anokye to meet him on the disputed land exactly the same day and time as he had given the assassins so that they resolved the problem between them to which the children agreed.
Soon it was morning and the trio set off for the disputed land. Unfortunately, on their way, the front tyre of the vehicle they drove in burst and it took some time for them to get another vehicle to go to town to purchase a new one to fix it on the car.
All these while, the three children of Papa Nyamekye, who had heard that their father was meeting with their cousins on the property, decided to meet them there so that they could control their father’s anger.
They made the trip at the blind side of their father and because of the problem Opanyin Anokye’s children had with their vehicle, Papa Nyamekye’s children arrived at the disputed land first.
Unfortunately, the assasins mistook the three children to be Opanyin Anokye’s children and they were brutally murdered. After that, they called Papa Nyamekye that they had finished with the task.
With joy, Papa Nyamekye qiuckly rushed to the land and he got there just about the time Papa Anothye’s children had also arrived. He shook with fear when he saw them.
He checked around and that was when he identified some of the personal belongings and dead bodies of his own children. He started crying and shouting “I’ve killed my own children, I’ve killed my own children.”
Initially people thought he was saying that out of shock but when he kept on giving further details of the incident, they knew he was behind the killings.
He was arrested and sent to court to be tried for murder. Unfortunately, he went mad before the trial began.
The death of his own children which he was responsible for was too much for him to bear. It weighed too heavily on his conscience and that was why he went mad.
Initially, prison officials thought it was a ploy by him to evade prison life, however, when they saw him eating his own faeces, they believed it.
Since then his story was told to all who were greedy to change their behaviour.
Maame Afia, Accra.
