‘FLYING WITCH’ CRASHES ON CLIFF

A woman in her eighties, suspected of being a witch, was found naked yesterday, in the middle of heaped stones at the Military Dogs Training School compound in Accra, by some soldiers who were on their daily patrol duties.

According to the soldiers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, they reported for work only to find to their surprise that a woman, well advanced in age, lying helplessly between two heaps of stones at about 7:00 a.m.

According to the military officers, they carried and laid her by the roadside, and later reported the case to the Airport Police Station, but the men and women in black (police) refused to have anything to do with the woman.

The spokesman for the soldiers on duty added that they had never seen her in the area before, and could not explain how she managed to get into the yard through the security wall, to get to where she was lying.

The woman, who appeared to understand many Ghanaian dialects, told The Chronicle that she was a native of Sokpoe Sogakope in the Volta Region, and lives with her family between Maamobi and Nima. She gave her name as Buokuor Fiadzigbe, and mentioned one of her daughters as Adiza.

She alleged that she was in a company of witches numbering 15, operating from Nima to a place 'where only God knows', when she came crashing to the ground.

When the The chronicle visited the scene at 10:0 am, the woman could neither sit upright nor walk, and there were bruises all over her body. She was somehow angry that people had surrounded her.

The Red Cross officials came to the scene, dressed her up, and took her to the Airport Police Station, but policemen and women on duty refused to take her particulars, or to help identify her relatives.

One Red Cross official, who did not also mentioned his name, took Madam Fiadziagbe to the Accra Psychiatric Hospital. Unfortunately, here too, the Medical Assistant on duty,  Achnoo Kofi Warlasi  refused to admit the hapless woman. '

'The days of the Good Samaritan are over. Those were Bible days, now we are in Ghana. There is nothing I can do to help. Take her elsewhere,' he virtually screamed on us.

According to the Medical Assistant, the woman was not mentally ill and that the hospital only takes care of people who are mentally unstable. In his opinion, the old lady had no mental challenges. Her injuries, he pointed out, were physical and, therefore, asked the Red Cross personnel to take her to a different hospital.

The woman appeared very weak.  She could barely talk nor eat. All she demanded was water.

The Red Cross official drove her to the Mamobi Poly Clinic. Here too, nurses on duty as well as a doctor sighted by The Chronicle, refused to attend to her. Their contention was that they needed police extract before they could attend to her.

The Red Cross official then drove the woman to the Kotobabi Police station, which was a short distance from the hospital. But the police for the second time disappointed the Good Samaritan. They refused to take charge of the poor old woman.  They were rather very angry that the woman was brought to the station.

One callous police officer suggested to the Good Samaritan to drop the poor woman by the roadside on  his way back, adding that a man in his 80s was once brought to them but there was  little they could to assist him.

He said they took him to the hospital but the medical practitioners at the time refused to admit him, so they left him to his fate to die. When he passed away, they took the body to the mortuary.