Fear has gripped residents of the Ahanta West District in the Western Region over the suspected ritual murder of four citizens of the area.
The victims were gruesomely murdered and parts of their bodies removed. In addition, their corpses were badly mutilated in what looked like ritual murders.
The Ahanta West District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Joseph Dofoyenah, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that the strange deaths had occurred within a period of three months.
He recounted an incident at Agona Nkwanta in which a 12-year-old girl was found dead with parts of her body removed.
The DCE said infuriated by the murder, some residents of Agona Nkwanta, Domeabra, Ntaakrom and other villages in the district threatened to lynch any stranger they had reason to suspect.
That, he said, resulted in a motor rider being lynched by residents of Ntaakrom, near Cape Three Points, because they suspected that he was a ritual murderer.
Meanwhile, the District Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Issah Yakubu, has confirmed the recent mysterious deaths and says his outfit has formed a security task force to intensify night patrols in the district.
He said the command would also embark on an intensive educational drive on radio stations and at community durbars to sensitise the people to the need for them to arrest and report people with suspicious characters in their communities, instead of lynching them.
He said meting out instant punishment to suspected criminals would deprive the police of vital information and, therefore, entreated the people to desist from that practice.
Chief Inspector Yakubu said no arrest had been made in connection with the crimes and that the command was investigating the matter with urgency. -
Source: GNA
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