Five Persons Caged For ‘Witch’ Attack At Sumpini

The Bole Magistrate Court, presided over by Andrew Prince Cudjoe, has remanded five persons who were arrested in connection with the near lynching of a 60-year-old woman at Sumpini near Busunu in the West Gonja Municipality in the Savannah Region over claims that she is a witch.

Meri Ibrahim was savagely attacked with machetes and other offensive weapons by some residents, five of whom were arraigned yesterday.

She sustained severe machete wounds on Saturday night and is on admission at the Damongo Hospital.

The accused persons who appeared in court yesterday are Atta Alhassan, 57; Haruna Yagbon, 56; Iddrisu Sayibu, 35; Salifu Issahaku, 45, and Zakaria Abdul Karim, 30.

They have been charged with conspiracy to cause harm and causing harm and were remanded to reappear in court on September 19.

The elderly woman was attacked in the same region where a 90-year-old woman, Akua Denteh, was brutally lynched for also being a witch.

According to the mob, Meri had wanted to use witchcraft to 'kill' a young man in the town and had to be made to 'suffer' for it to serve as a deterrent to other would-be 'witches'.

Meri, in a video, narrated that she and two other women in the Sumpini community were accused of witchcraft but the two other women were able to flee from the community to avoid any attacks.

She revealed that she was at home when some residents came and accused her of being a witch, but she denied.

Meri said that did not stop the residents from attacking her with machetes and other offensive objects, while her house was ransacked and belongings destroyed.

In the case of Akua Denteh, seven people made up of the suspected ringleader, Sherina Mohamed alias Hajia Filipina, her accomplice Latifa Bumaye, and five other men who participated in the lynching, are currently standing trial at the Bole District Magistrate Court.

---Daily Guide