The paramount chief for the Soo traditional area in the West Mamprusi municipality of the North East Region, Naa Maligu Nantomah Seidu, has condemned the killing of a 60-year-old woman over witchcraft accusation in the Janga community.
Musah Azaratu Poanaa was shot dead on Sunday (24 September 2023) by her direct brother’s sons (Sumani Abila and Sumani Fatau) for accusing her of being a witch, who was trying to bewitch their father.
The alleged bewitched man (Alhassan Sumani) was sent to a nearby village for local treatment after a soothsayer told his children that the old woman was the one behind his sickness.
The witchcraft accusation case was reported to the chief in Janga by two sons of the bewitched man but the chief rejected them for lack of evidence.
Disgruntled sons
They were asked by the paramount chief to go back and settle the case within the family, but the two young men defied the chief’s directives and stormed the old lady’s house, dragged her out, and shot her dead.
“I came and met the witchcraft issue and we have the camp in Gambaga. We need the government to step in to find a solution to it so that peace will prevail and nothing will happen like that again,” Naa Seidu told Asaase News in reference to the gruesome murder.
He has called on the security agencies to investigate the case and to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book.
“I sent for the family to bring the boy to my palace so I could let the police arrest him, but he ran away. So, we are praying that God will let them get him. When they get him let the law work,” Naa Seidu added.
Ghana’s parliament has passed a bill to protect people accused of witchcraft, making it a crime to abuse them or send them away from communities.
The new law was suggested after a 90-year-old woman was lynched in Kafaba in the East Gonja Municipality of the Savannah Region in July 2020, drawing condemnation from local and international rights groups.
Reporting by Dokurugu Alhassan in the North East Region
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