Two persons have reportedly been lynched at Zakpalsi, a farming community in the Mion District in the Northern Region over witchcraft accusations.
The deceased, Imoro Safura, 40, a mother of seven and Mba Cherefo are said to have been accused of being behind the illness of a woman in the community after her family consulted a soothsayer.
An irate youth in the community on Sunday reportedly attacked Safura at her residence, sensing danger she ran to seek refuge at the chief’s palace, but was overpowered and lynched in the process, Graphic Online gathered.
Subsequently, the youth pursued Cherefo and reportedly killed him at his residence.
The police has initiated investigations into the matter.
Alleged Witches committee
The Regional Re-integration Committee of Alleged Witches has condemned the incident and called for swift investigation to bring the perpetrators to book and give justice to the victims and their families.
The Executive Director of Songtaba, Lamnatu Adams who spoke on behalf of the committee, said the incident was a clear case of murder, hence there must not be any interference in the police investigations.
While urging the public to desist from taking the law into their hands and attacking accused persons, she called on Parliament to hasten the passage of the Anti-witchcraft bill into law to criminalize witchcraft accusations and attacks.
Background
There are rampant cases of people being accused of witchcraft in the Northern Region and that has often led to violent attacks on the victims and the burning down of their homes by their accusers, who are mostly the youth.
While most victims of such accusations are often chased out of their communities to seek refuge in the various witches camps, others are sometimes physically attacked and lynched.
In July 2020, a 90-year-old woman, Akua Dentah was lynched on accusations that she was a witch at Kafaba in the East Gonja Municipality in the Savannah Region.
Anti-witchcraft bill
The Parliament of Ghana is working to pass an Anti-Witchcraft Bill into law to criminalise witchcraft and other related offences.
A pre-stakeholder engagement on the bill started in Accra last month as part of efforts to build support for the passage of the bill by Parliament.
The proposed Witchcraft Bill includes the prohibition of professional witchcraft or wizardry, prohibition against the accusation of witchcraft, participation in the declaration of a person as a witch or wizard, and a penalty against the chief or headman encouraging witchcraft.
