Chief, four others arrested over attack on 60-year-old ‘witch’

The chief of Sumpini, 58-year-old Haruna Jebuni, is among five persons who have been picked up following an attack on a 60-year-old woman on suspicion of being a witch.

The other suspects have been named as Zakaria Abdul Karim, 30, Shaibu Iddrisu, 35, Attah Alhassan, 57 and 45-year-old Salugu Issahaku also known as Orulaana.

A statement released by the Ghana Police Service said all the suspects would soon be arraigned.

It further said the victim (name withheld) who suffered cutlass wounds is in a stable condition at a medical facility in the West Gonja District of Damongo in the Savannah Region.

The attack happened after the Bugum festival on Saturday evening when a group of men accused her of witchcraft.

A girl who lives with the woman and her sick husband was also attacked. She told a health worker treating her that a young man on the same compound fell sick and she was accused of being behind his illness.

“Although I denied it, they pursued and attacked me with machetes,” she is heard in a video widely shared online.

There was a national uproar last month after Akua Denteh, 90, was ruthlessly whipped to death after a fetish priest accused her of witchcraft in the same region last month.

At least seven persons are facing a court over the incident while police search for seven others.

[Daily Mail GH]