Tension mounts in Asogli over lack of rains

Ho, May 16, GNA - Anxiety is mounting in Ho as mysterious events continue to characterize the action of a man alleged to have used supernatural powers to hold-up rainfall in the municipality for the past three months.

A goat, which was part of items the Asogli Traditional Council ordered Mr Victor Dzide, 70, to provide for purification, died few hours after it was presented.

He was alleged to have refused to respond to the call of the traditional council to attend meetings for the final hearing of a case brought against him for allegedly using super natural powers to hold up rains in the Asogli Traditional Area.

"Nobody seems to know his whereabouts and what he may be planning next", a council member remarked.

Togbe Kludzexe III, a Special Adviser to Togbe Afede XIV, Agbogbomefia of the Asogli Traditional Council, told the GNA in an interview that the council was prepared to go to any length to ensure the safety of the area.

Mr Dzide, a retired clerk at the Ho Municipal Hospital, was summoned last week by the Asogli Traditional Council for allegedly holding up the rains in the traditional area with his supernatural powers. He was alleged to have stopped the rains by hanging a live vulture with a red rope on a palm tree in his house at Ho Bankoe since March 02. The bad smell from the dead vulture gave up Mr Dzide whose neighbours alerted the traditional authorities of the area to the strange event.

A source at the Traditional Council said it was forbidden for anyone in the municipality to kill a vulture, which is revered in the area.

When Dzide was summoned before the traditional council, he admitted the act and explained that the location where he hanged the vulture was his prayer grounds and that he prays with the Bible. He said the hanging of the vulture was a ritual aimed at protecting his farm against thieves.