A woman has survived lynching after she was dubbed a witch and attacked with all manner of offensive weapons including a chainsaw. So many years after independence, this action is crude.
Earlier in the same Savannah Region where the woman survived lynching, a nonagenarian was not as lucky. Her suspected killers are still in court.
The attackers of the latest victim of the so-called witch, we would be surprised if they did not hear about the fate of those behind the murder of the old woman referred to in a preceding paragraph and how the law has caught up with them. It could be that they have not heard about it and ignorant of how the law will clamp down upon those who act in this way. They could on the other hand be overwhelmed by their medieval beliefs about witchcraft and therefore could not care about the consequences of their crude action. Since the law has no room for ignorance they would face it doubtlessly.
The authorities in the Savannah Region have a lot of work to do if we must stop this nonsense of labelling elderly women witches and proceeding to lynch them.
We have outgrown this medieval thinking as a country and must be seen to be taking effective action to stem the rising tide of murder in the name of stopping witchcraft.
We think the Gender Ministry must engage with traditional authorities, opinion leaders and religious persons with a view to bringing them on board the crusade against the murder of women in their old age because some crazy persons think they are witches. With no law prescribing death for witches anyway, their actions have no justification.
The latest attack on a woman which could have resulted in a murder suggests that we are not yet out of the woods. Something must be done about this anomaly before it becomes a feature of this part of the country.
We are appalled that during such attacks residents of the community just watch on without stopping the perpetrators.
Thorough investigations should, of course, be conducted beyond those arrested so far and those found culpable prosecuted before the courts.
Considering the rampant occurrence of such attacks on poor old women, we would suggest also that law enforcement heightens its intelligence work in such ‘witch-prone’ areas lest more women are attacked.
We are on the verge of becoming a country where some citizens can decide to end others’ lives because in their estimation they are witches and should be murdered.