The farming community of Wassa Saaman in the Wassa Amenfi East District of the Western Region was thrown into a state of shock last Thursday when news broke out that the corpse of a thirty-year-old woman buried in the area had been exhumed and left at the cemetery.
Some of the residents believed that the dead body of Maame Ajoa, popularly called Maajoa, who was buried about three weeks ago, was exhumed purportedly by some people believed to be engaged in blood money, also called ‘sakawa’.
They asserted that the cloth which was used to cover her private part when she was being buried was also removed.
“So we are suspecting that the purported ‘sakawa’ boys might have raped or had sex with the corpse,” sources revealed.
According to the sources, the exhumed body has since been reburied after the chief and elders of the community had performed the necessary rites.
Eyewitness accounts had it that about a week after Maajoa’s burial, a woman who was searching for firewood at Wassa Saaman cemetery came across the exhumed body and returned to inform the deceased family members but they did not believe it.
Later the youth in the community, led by the Asafoakye, went to the cemetery to dig a grave for a corpse to be buried and one of them, believed to be Maajoa’s family member, chanced upon the exhumed corpse and immediately went to inform the family.
“When the family came to the cemetery, they identified the body as that of Maajoa and they immediately went to inform the chief and elders of the community,” the eyewitness indicated.
A family source indicated that the exhumed corpse was raped by those who exhumed because footprints were found around the body and that her legs wide opened. He suspected that the suspects had sexual intercourse with the lifeless body.
“When we were burying Maajoa, we covered all her body except the head, so it’s strange that the cloth covering her private part has been removed and her legs wide opened,” a family member revealed.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi