Joseph Ackah-Blay, a TV3 journalist and Legal practitioner, has narrated chilling details of a case in which a wife was convicted of abetting the murder of her husband after the Supreme Court of Ghana found that evidence presented at trial established her role in a staged robbery that resulted in his death.
The Legal practitioner disclosed that the case involved Salamatu Karim and two men, Awudu Alhassan Sulemana, popularly known as “Dozer,” and Mohammed Sulemana, also known as “Banana.”
He revealed that the three were convicted over the murder of Salamatu’s husband, Abdul Karim, at his residence at ACP Estates, Pokuase, on June 15, 2013.
According to Joseph Ackah-Blay, the case presented before the courts, what initially appeared to be an armed robbery turned out to be a carefully plotted attack in which the victim’s wife was alleged to have played a central role.
In a post on X by Joseph Ackah-Blay on September 23, 2026, he wrote, “A staged robbery, a grieving widow, and the confession that unravelled it all.
On the night of 15 June 2013, Abdul Karim was killed in his home at ACP Estates, Pokuase. At about 9:35 p.m. His wife, Salamatu Karim, called the police. Her account was that armed robbers had broken in and killed her husband while she was bathing.
By the time officers arrived, Abdul Karim had already been rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A post-mortem revealed a fractured skull, a fractured mandible, and injuries consistent with a sustained, deliberate beating.
The case remained unresolved until the police made headway while investigating a different crime. While probing an unrelated attempted robbery, they arrested a man named Kofi Nyagbedzi. In the course of that separate matter, Nyagbedzi gave police information that pointed them toward two other men: Awudu Alhassan Sulemana, known as “Dozer,” and Mohammed Sulemana, known as “Banana.”
Police tracked the pair down and arrested them at Dodowa. Under interrogation, Dozer and Banana gave statements that changed the whole complexion of the case. According to the prosecution, both men admitted the initial unsolved “robbery” had been staged. There were no strangers breaking in. The person who let them into the house that night, they said, was Salamatu Karim herself, the victim’s own wife, and sister to Dozer.
The prosecution’s case was that Salamatu recruited Dozer and Banana, let them into the house, hid them in the bathroom, pointed out her husband to them when the moment came, supplied the weapon, and promised to pay them afterwards. Dozer was convicted of murder and conspiracy, Banana of conspiracy, and Salamatu, though she never struck a blow herself, of abetment of murder for the role the confessions said she played in setting it up. All three were sentenced to death.
They appealed, first to the Court of Appeal, which affirmed the convictions in November 2018, then to the Supreme Court. Counsel for the three appellants, Raphael Alijina Debrah, raised thirteen grounds of appeal, which really came down to four arguments: that the confession statements should never have been admitted, that the trial judge’s directions to the jury were flawed, that the evidence did not prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt, and that the Court of Appeal was wrong to affirm the convictions.
On the confessions, the Supreme Court noted that the trial judge had held a mini trial specifically to test whether the statements were voluntary, assessed the credibility of the men who gave them, and found they were freely made. The Court said a finding like that, made by the judge who actually watched and heard the witnesses, is not something an appellate court should casually override, and it saw no reason to hear.
On the jury directions, the Court found nothing wrong either. It described the summing-up as balanced, comprehensive, and legally accurate.
On Salamatu, her lawyers argued the evidence against her did not go far enough to prove abetment beyond reasonable doubt. The Court disagreed. It pointed to what her own husband’s killers had said about her role: letting them in, hiding them, pointing out the victim, and helping conceal the crime afterwards. Taken together with the medical evidence showing this was no chance robbery but a deliberate, coordinated attack, and with the testimony of the prosecution’s key witness, the Court found the picture complete. Someone had to let the killers in and tell them which man to strike. The evidence said that person was her.
The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal in full. The convictions and death sentences for all three, Dozer, Banana, and Salamatu Karim, were affirmed.
Case title: Awudu Alhassan Sulemana @ Dozer, Mohammed Sulemana @ Banana & Salamatu Karim v. The Republic, Supreme Court of Ghana, Criminal Appeal No. J3/1/2020, judgment delivered 29 July 2026”.
See the post below:
A staged robbery, a grieving widow, and the confession that unraveled it all
— Joseph Ackah-Blay (@BlayAckah) September 23, 2026
On the night of 15 June 2013, Abdul Karim was killed in his home at ACP Estates, Pokuase. At about 9:35 p.m. His wife, Salamatu Karim, called the police. Her account was that armed robbers had broken in…
@ghnow_ EOCO Officials Attempt to Arrest Lawyer Nana Adjei Baffour Awuah at Accra High Court #GHNow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
@ghnow_ Breaking News: Three suspects have been apprehended. #GHNow #missingperson #fyp ♬ original sound – ADAAMAINA
