Lynching of 90-year-old woman: Police seek A-G’s advice

Samuel Duodu Aug - 22 - 2020 , 12:12 2 minutes read

The Savannah Regional Police Command has forwarded the docket on the alleged murder of a 90-year-old woman, Akua Mariama Denteh, at Kafaba in the East Gonja municipality to the Attorney-General’s (A-G’s) Office for advice.

Madam Denteh was lynched at the farming community near Salaga, the capital of the East Gonja municipality, on July 23, 2020, after she had been pronounced a witch by a supposed soothsayer.

The action by the police is to pave the way for committal proceedings to begin at the Bole District Magistrate Court on the next adjourned date of September 8, 2020, after the court, presided over by Mr Andrew Prince Cudjoe, had remanded into prison custody the seven persons accused of murdering the woman when they appeared before the court for the second time on Thursday, August 20, 2020.

Accused

The seven accused are Sirina Mohammed, 40, aka Alhajia, the supposed soothsayer who pronounced Ms Denteh a witch, and Latifah Bumaye, 33, the lady said to have flogged Ms Denteh, while accusing her of being responsible for the supposed lack of rainfall in the Kafaba community.

The rest are Haruna Aness, 34; Issifu Tanko, 35; Shaibu Murtala, 29; Suleman Ali, 35, and Issifa Zakyibu, 32.

They were said to have invited the soothsayer to the Kafaba community to identify witches and exorcise them.

The seven were provisionally charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder, respectively, but they were discharged by the court when they reappeared before it last Thursday.

They were, however, immediately re-arrested on the court premises and charged with murder.

Mr Cudjoe said he remanded the accused persons into police custody for the second time to enable the police to continue with their investigations and also forward the docket to the A-G’s Office for advice for committal proceedings to begin.

The acting Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Savannah Regional Police Command, Sergeant Owusu Adjekum, told the Daily Graphic after the court proceedings that the docket on the case had been forwarded to the A-G’s Office for advice.

Recall

The first to be arrested by the police in connection with Denteh’s murder was the Chief of Kafaba, Seidu Yahaya, who has since been granted bail, while Haruna, Issifu, Shaibu, Suleman and Issifa turned themselves in and were arrested by the police.

Latifah was arrested at her hideout at Kejewu Bator, a fishing community near Salaga, on July 30, 2020, while Sirina was arrested at her hideout at Yeji in the Bono East Region on August 3, 2020.

Lynching of 90-year-old woman: IGP dispatches homicide team to hunt killers