The Bolgatanga District Court, presided over by Osman Abdul-Hakeem, on
Thursday remanded another set of five persons in prison custody for
allegedly threatening and molesting three old ladies they suspected to
be witches, at Gare, in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region.
The court also granted a bench warrant to the police for the arrest of one Tarebon, who is on the run.
Their remand comes just two days after five suspects were remanded in
police custody in connection with the lynching of an old lady in the
same district.
On Thursday, June 15, 2017 the police in Bolgatanga brought five
persons, including a 29-year-old Evangelist, Akwesi Ali Baba, before
court over an alleged witchcraft accusation. They are to reappear in
court on June 30, 2017.
Presenting the facts in court, the prosecutor, Inspector Gilbert
Boateng Addae, said the four other suspects – Doug Sapak, Mba Gudabe,
Missah Samlate and Malupaaya Mbanyia – are farmers.
The evangelist has been charged with publication of false news intended
to cause fear and alarm to the public. The others were charged with
threat of death, unlawful entry and causing unlawful damage.
On June 6, 2017, at about 6:00 am, Evangelist Ali Baba allegedly
accused the three old ladies of being witches and based on that, the
other accused persons and others, led by one Tarebon, attacked the three
women and threatened to kill them.
The women managed to run to the palace of the Gare chief to report the accusations leveled against them.
The accused persons reportedly whisked the women away from the chief’s
palace to meet a “witch doctor” at Yeliwongo, a border town between the
Bongo District in the Upper East Region and the Republic of
Burkina-Faso. While there, the women were subjected to an ordeal at the
hands of the “witch doctor” for three days.
On June 9, 2017, the accused brought the women back to Gare and told
the chief that they (women) had been confirmed to be witches and that
they were sending them to Gambaga for another trial.
The chief refused them their desire and asked them to release the
women, which provoked them (accused) and they threatened to kill the
women, and for that reason, the chief decided to keep them in his
palace.
The accused persons reportedly went to the rooms of the women in search
of a supposed pot the evangelist had told them they had been bewitched
with.
A concerned resident who heard of the incident, reported the case to the police and were eventually arrested.
