The police have made a major breakthrough with the arrest of suspects said to be behind several murder cases recorded in the Upper West Region in recent times, especially in the regional capital of Wa.
The police allege that one of the suspects is a cannibal, who has been feasting on his victims.
Graphic Online's Emmanuel Bonney reports that after intense intelligence work, the police arrested the two suspects in connection with a series of the unresolved murder cases in the region dating back to 2021.
The suspects, Sherif Abdulai, aged 30, and Mahamuda Lamin, aged 25, are believed to be behind the murders of mostly private security staff of some facilities in the regional capital, Wa.
The cases include 15 murder cases recorded in the region between 2021 and 2022, and the recent case involving the murder of a watchman, Issah Yahaya, at Wa-Dobile on September 21, 2025.
The arrest of the two is seen as a breakthrough in the effort to unravel the mystery behind those murders.
In most cases, the victims were watchmen who were attacked while on duty and strangled to death or suffered head injuries from being hit in the head with blocks.
The apparent success has come on the back of a deployment of three intelligence officers by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Christian Tetteh Yohuno, from the National Police Headquarters to the area, who worked closely with officers in the region to achieve the feat.
Locations
In 2021, the police recorded four murder cases at Kpaguri, Loho, Kambale-Mangu and an area between Kaleo and Loh.
Eleven more murder cases with similar modus operandi were recorded in 2022 in different locations, such as Kulpong-Yeyiri Road, around the High Ranking School on the Napogbakole Extension, at Goripie, near Bulenga, TI Ahmadiyya School, Kpaguri, near Chorkor, Sawmill around Nakore Petrosol, Tupaso School area, Napogbakole Extension around VRA Quarters, near the Star Standard Academy, and an area around the Child Support Orphanage.
Investigations
The sources said the IGP dispatched the latest team of investigators from Accra following a careful review of the cases and the pattern that seemed consistent in all the cases.
Through initial forensic analysis, and acting on credible intelligence, on October 3, 2025, the team first arrested suspect Mahamuda Lamin.
After interrogation, there were some leads pointing to a second suspect, the police said.
With the assistance of the Assemblyman and some community members of Dondoli, a suburb of Wa Municipality, on Monday, October 6, 2025, the second suspect, Sherrif Abdulai, a cobbler, was arrested at Adabiya, a suburb of Wa, the police said.
Ex-convict
Abdulai, the police said, was an ex-convict who went by the aliases Saani, Mohammed and Critos.
A search on him led to the retrieval of a Villaon keypad mobile phone and an X-Base solar-powered portable radio.
Both items were later positively identified as the property of Issah Yahaya, the watchman killed at Wa-Dobile.
On interrogation, the police said the suspect claimed that he had bought the phone from a galamsey site in Bole.
It was found out that the suspect resided in a hideout in an isolated metal container located in a bush around the Wa Airstrip area.
Incident
In the latest case of the murders, at about 6:30 p.m. on September 21 this year, Yahaya Issah, 55, was found dead in a motor mechanic shop at Dobile, near Wa New Market.
Upon an inspection of the scene, the police found a broken piece of cement block mixed with blood, a knife placed on the deceased s face and a cement block stained with blood behind the motor mechanic shop.
The body of the deceased was conveyed to the Upper West Regional Hospital, Wa, for autopsy.
Upon a post-mortem examination, the pathologist at the Upper West Regional Hospital on September 21, 2025, gave the verbal cause of death as severe head injury due to blunt force head trauma .
Four years
Since the incident surfaced over the last four years, about 500 police officers have been sent on various operational duties to the area to be able to arrest the key suspects, but all efforts have failed, raising a lot of concerns for the residents.
However, the IGP deployed only three intelligence officers from the National Headquarters who worked closely with officers in the region to be able to break through.
