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 and copied to Wontumionline.com 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 accussed 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.