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28.02.2012 Crime & Punishment

Man absconds to escape from inheriting grandfather's shrine and widows

28.02.2012 LISTEN
By GNA

Techiman (B/A), Feb. 28, GNA – Mr. Isaac Suglow, a maize farmer from Nadowli in the Upper West Region but resident in Techiman, is being sought by the elders of his family not only to inherit his late grandfather's “Nyamakolo” shrine but also to marry all the nine wives the old man left behind.

Mr Suglow disappeared from Nadowli immediately after the funeral of his grandfather when the family elders made known to him the collective decision to install him as the successor.

He was alleged to have commented: “I am a Christian and cannot worship any idol apart from God.”

His comment appeared not to have gone down well with the elders so they hatched a plot to kidnap him and forcefully install him as the “Nyamaklo” priest.

Mr. Peter Rowland, younger brother of Mr Suglow, who made the disclosure to reporters in Techiman, said on May 23, 2006 their grandfather who was the high priest of the “Nyamakolo” shrine in Oulo, a town in the Nadowli District, passed away.

He said messengers were sent all the way from Nadowli to Techiman to invite Suglow home for the necessary customary rites and procedures for the installation but the “heir apparent” (Suglow) declared that he could not step in the shoes of his late grandfather as he was a Christian.

Mr. Rowland said some years later Suglow went back to Onlo to visit his sick mother, not knowing that the family elders had plotted to kidnap him and to forcefully install him as the “Nyamkolo” fetish priest.

He added that some hefty “macho” men attempted to capture Mr Suglow but in his attempt to escape he fell into fire that had been set by a pito brewer.

The woman raised the alarm and some “good Samaritans” rushed to the spot and rescued Suglow and sent him to a hospital at nearby Daffiama.

Mr. Rowland stated that when his brother was discharged the family again approached him and decided to seek herbal treatment for him in Burkina Faso but Suglow, whose condition had then improved, absconded again and has since not been seen.

He said for over six years now the entire family has continually made frantic efforts to locate Suglow's whereabouts but to no avail.

According to Mr. Rowland, it is the custom of the people of Nadowli that anyone who would inherit the position of chief priest would marry all the wives of the late priest and cater for all his children as well as ensure the enforcement of the area's custom of performing female genital mutilation.

GNA

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