Ghana: Ritual killing hits Takoradi

Published: January 26, 2019
By: GhanaWeb

The lifeless body of 16-year-old Kweku Gyamerah

Residents of Monkey Hill in Sekondi-Takoradi, the Western Regional capital, have been gripped with fear following the mysterious death of a 16-year-old boy in the area.

The lifeless body of Kweku Gyamerah, a final-year student of Bishop Essuah Junior High School (JHS) in Takoradi, was found in a forest reserve at Monkey Hill close to the Paa Grant Roundabout in Takoradi yesterday.

According to some residents, there were some marks on the body, which suggested that his blood might have been drained for ritual purposes.

“We also saw maggots in his nose and mouth. Also, there were bruises all over his body and parts of his body appeared mutilated,” a resident alleged.

According to Fredrick Gyamerah, father of the deceased, his son was staying with his aunt at New Site M35, near Takoradi but was reported missing on Monday, January 21, 2019 at about 8pm.

Distress calls were made to some radio stations in Takoradi about a decomposed body in the forest reserve while the police were informed later.

The police subsequently went to the scene and conveyed the decomposed body to the Effia-Nkwanta Hospital morgue in Sekondi.

Meanwhile, the police have launched investigations into the case.

Source: Ritual killing hits Takoradi

I didn’t demand human head – Fetish Priest in Ghana says


Published on February 12, 2018
By GhanaWeb

The Fetish Priest at the centre of a ritual murder at Bogoso in the Western Region, Nana Tia, has denied any knowledge of the killing of the 12-year-old boy.

According to him, he never demanded a human head from the suspects as claimed, saying that he only engages in healing his clients spiritually and money doubling.

“I have no idea of what is happening in this town. I don’t help people to kill. I only heal my clients when they are sick and help them to travel outside. I never asked the suspects to bring human heads” he said on Accra-based Neat FM.

The Agona Nkwanta District Police Command on Tuesday night arrested 23-year-old Alex Tetteh for possessing a human head, believed to be that of a young boy.

The suspect was arrested by the people of Sankro, a village near Dixcove when he was searching for a potential buyer of the human part.

The Western Regional Police PRO, ASP Olivia Adiku, told Takoradi-based Skyypower FM that the suspect had attempted to sell the human head to a spiritualist around 5:15 pm on Tuesday, February 6.

When interrogated by the police, the suspect, Alex Tetteh, confessed to decapitating the boy with two accomplices.

The suspect has since been transferred to the Regional Police Command at Sekondi, pending further investigations, while the human head concealed in a black polythene bag has been conveyed to the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital morgue.

But reacting to the incident, Nana Tia expressed shock at the turn of events since he never gave the suspect audience when he (suspect) visited him at his shrine.

“I have never met the boy; I was in the bathroom when my niece informed me that a boy had come to me to double money for him. I even sacked him but he refused to leave. I didn’t know that what he was holding in the bag was a boy’s head”, he said.

According to Nana Tia, he did neither saw the suspect nor the content of his belonging, adding that it was the villagers who arrested the suspect when he said he had come to the town looking for a Mallam to give him money ritual.

Meanwhile, father of the 12 year old boy, Mr Mensah is demanding justice for his deceased son, Ebenezer Tetteh, a student of Grace International School at Bogoso.

Sources from the school indicated that the deceased was seen in the school in the morning but after some students were sacked for the non-payment of school fees and the deceased may have left the school as a result.

But father of the beheaded boy says his son had paid his fees in full.

Source: GhanaWeb, February 12, 2018

Related article covering the same case:
Man arrested for offering human head for sale, Graphic Online, Author: Dotsey Koblah Aklorbortu

Central Region and Western Region of Ghana