A Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Sanneh Institute based in the Northern Region has petitioned the President to close all witch camps in the 5 regions of the North.
In an interview about the petition, the Executive Director of the institute, John Azuma, said the inhumane treatment meted out to the inhabitants of these camps is unacceptable.
“All these so called witch camps in the north should be shut down. I know some people have argued that these witch camps are really serving a safe haven for these vulnerable women. I beg to disagree. I come from the place and I know that these witch camps are presided over by some chiefs who themselves identify and label people as witches through the trial by ordeal.”
His comments come after, the Salaga Police Divisional Command arrested a key suspect in the killing of a 90 year old woman, who was accused of witchcraft in Kafaba in the Savannah Region. The suspect, Latifah Bumaye, 33, according to the police is one of the women seen in the viral lynching video, chanting and cheering herself and onlookers and whipping the deceased Akua Denteh.
She was arrested at Kejewu Bator, a fishing community near Salaga, the capital of the East Gonja Municipality. Latifah was arrested based on a tip off, according to the police.
This brings the total number of persons arrested and in police custody to six following the murder of Madam Akua Denteh, on July 23, 2020 after a traditional priestess declared her a witch.
Five of the people arrested are being held in custody in Bole in the Savannah Region with the latest arrestee yet to be transferred from Salaga.
The Member of Parliament for Pusiga, Lardi Ayamba and Ranking Member on the Gender and Children’s Committee in Parliament has said the law must deal with all persons found culpable and that, the authorities in Kafaba lagged in quelling the unfortunate happening.
“Whether local or non-local, all authorities, I will say, have failed because, they cannot say that a move of hundreds of people to a particular place nobody realised that there was that move. It’s not possible. Even If you are gathering 50 people in such a community, before even if you realised, in this day and era of phone, people would have heard that there are people gathering somewhere. Not to talk of the time that, they would have dragged her from her house to that path or open space and the gathering and all the nonsense that took place there and what that suppose witch doctor was doing to her. Nobody knew? It’s impossible. The law should work.”
The Savannah Regional Police Commander, DCOP Enoch Adutwum Bediako made it public that, the suspects are on remand and are set to reappear in court in the coming weeks.
