Awulae Annor Adjaye III, Omanhene of Western Nzema Traditional Area, has appealed to the witches and wizards in Nzemaland not to turn the oil-find in the area into a fruitless disaster zone.
Awulae Adjaye made the appeal at a public forum on the oil-find organised by the Western Regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Tullow Oil Ghana Limited at Half Assini, last week.
In a rather shockingly superstitious manner, he noted that wizards and witches in the area were spiritually capable of turning the oil into water and could even drain the oil away altogether.
Awulae Adjaye pointed out that the oil-find would benefit the people of Ghana including Nzemas and, therefore, pleaded with the wizards and witches not to do anything untoward that would bring the image of Nzemas into disrepute.
He suggested that the name �Jubilee Oil Fields� should be changed to �Nzema Oil Fields�, adding that the oil-drilling companies should employ people from the area instead of bringing workers from outside, so as to solve the unemployment problems bedevilling the inhabitants.
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Mr Kofi Esson, Governmental and External Relations Manager of Tullow Oil, assured the fishermen that oil extraction would not destroy their fishing business, adding that the oil companies were not in to take over people�s lands and destroy their businesses.
In Ghana, many people believe in the existence of wizards and witches.
Pentecostal and Charismatic churches often refer to biblical quotation like Ephesians 6:12: �For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.�
Witchcraft spirits are said to possess men, women and even children who in turn use the evil powers to turn fortune into misfortune, good into bad, happiness into sadness.
They are alleged to be responsible for killing their fellow human beings through accidents on the roads, on sea, on the farm, in factories and other places. They are also said to inflict blindness, make women barren, men impotent and turn children into cripples.
Wizards and witches are said to operate mostly at night to plan their diabolical activities.
Some are reportedly captured by powerful men of God and some jujumen while on their nocturnal missions, and made to confess their evil deeds during church conventions or at the shrines.
It is also rumoured that wizards and witches are able to fly to America, Germany or any part of the world to cause havoc to their victims and return to base.
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