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01.09.2009 Crime & Punishment

Snakeman Arrested

By Daily Guide
The snake boys,  Goro and Filco rightThe snake boys, Goro and Filco (right)
01.09.2009 LISTEN

The snake boys, Goro and Filco (right) Mallam Fatau, a Muslim cleric who shot to fame both home and abroad in the alleged Snake Men story, is currently in the cells of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in Accra, for alleged fraud.

Mallam Fatau is also being investigated in connection with the snake story.

A police source told DAILY GUIDE that a German-based Ghanaian, Willy Wise Kwaku Kyeremeh, who hailed from Chiraa in the Brong-Ahafo Region, lodged complaints of fraud against the Mallam, whom he said, had succeeded in defrauding him to the tune of GH¢7,000.

The amount was the fee Mallam Fatau charged him in order to conjure some gold ornaments for the burger's family at Chiraa.

He was therefore arrested on Friday August 28, 2009 and taken to Sunyani over the weekend to assist in investigations. Police said he had since been returned to police cells and is being held at the Police Headquarters.

A police source at Sunyani said the suspect was granted a police enquiry bail after admitting to the offence in his caution statement. He was then handed over to the Commercial Crime Unit (CCU) at the CID Headquarters in Accra.

A source at the headquarters said the story which broke a few weeks ago that two among four young men had been turned into African pythons due to their inability to provide the blood-soaked menstrual-pads of their lovers for a money making ritual, was a concocted one.

Mallam Fatau was alleged to have bought the snakes from a hunter who trapped the reptiles at Sakyikrom in the Eastern Region.

He then made up the cock-and-bull story that four young men had gone to the shrine of a certain Nana Ogya at Aburi New-Town for ritual money. All efforts to trace the said Nana Ogya had proved futile.

According to the story which caused huge sensation and screaming newspaper headlines, the four young men were each made to pay GH¢500 and given a 'sacred pot' in which they were to put the bloodied menstrual pads of their lovers in order to invoke money making spirits.

However, according to the story, two of the boys, Kofi Adjei and Kwame Tetteh, who failed to get the pads, turned into snakes when they opened the pot which allegedly contained human hearts.

The two others, Filco and Goro, were said to have been stricken with numbness and became 'jimi jimi' until they were brought to the sanctuary of Mallam Fatau who took them through various procedures of rituals including bathing them with the snakes wrapped around their necks at the Kokrobite Beach in the presence of a huge crowd of people.

He promised to get some special oil from Yeji, in the Brong-Ahafo Region, to turn the two snakes back into human beings in four days time, but had since not done that, claiming he could not get the oil.  

At one time, he said the snakes were speaking to him: other times he claimed they were fighting and blaming each other for their plight and he had to put them into two separate pots to calm them down.

Mallam Fatau was alleged also to have had syndicates who posed as relatives of the boys, wailing at the time of the rituals, as well as granting interviews to the media.

At the time, a certain woman who claimed to be the mother of one of the 'snake-men', said she saw her son turn into snake.

The source at the Police Headquarters said investigations so far revealed that all of the supposed relatives of the snakemen as well as Filco and Goro were now accomplices and would be invited to answer charges in due course.

Meanwhile, when DAILY GUIDE called Mallam Fatau's phone on Friday after his arrest, a suspected syndicate member answered the call and posed as Mallam Fatau, alleging he had traveled to Pokuase when the reporter requested to meet with him for an interview.

The sensational fetish priest, Nana Kwaku Bonsam, according to the police, had also reported a fraud case against Mallam Fatau, who allegedly used a picture of him (Bonsam) and one of his gods, 'Kofi Kofi', on a calendar which was designed and sold in the streets for commercial purposes.

By Rocklyn Antonio

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