The chief and his elders at the shrine
The shrine belonging to the fetish priest and priestess, whose television advertisement allegedly influenced two Kasoa teenagers to take the life of an 11-year-old boy, was nearly burnt down by irate youth of Amanase yesterday.
The timely intervention of policemen from Suhum prevented a nasty occurrence at the shrine located in the Ayensuano District of the Eastern Region.
Residents Ultimatum
After the police stopped them from taking the law into their hands, the chiefs who were with the irate youth, said they are waiting for three days within which the police must ensure that the fetish priest, now at large, and his wife, who is currently in custody, vacated the place, else they would not be able to guarantee their security.
On Wednesday, a team of policemen from the CID Headquarters in Accra raided the shrine and arrested Charity Mensah, a fetish priestess, who is nursing a two-week-old baby, and one Desmond Nii Adjei, following claims by the Kasoa teenage ‘killers’ that they had contacted the shrine to enable them become billionaires, and the fetish priest and priestess allegedly told them to bring human parts and blood for rituals.
The fetish priest’s supposed direction given to Felix Nyarko, aka Yaw Anane, and Nicholas Kwame Kini, aged 16 and 17, according to the teenagers, compelled them to kill 11-year-old Ishmael Mensah Abdallah for the purposes of money rituals.
The fetish priest, identified as Solomon Adjololo, alias Rasta, an ex-convict who hails from Aflao in the Volta Region, escaped upon hearing that the police were coming for him on Wednesday.
The suspects are being accused that their television advertisements is believed to have ‘influenced’ two teenagers in Kasoa in the Central Region, to kill Ishmael Mensah Abdallah for money rituals.
Angry Residents
The angry residents, led by Osaberima Obenfo Addo Agyekum, the Regent and Gyaasehene of Amanase, besieged the shrine on Friday morning, and tried to burn down the place, saying they cannot live with people who did not value human life.
The Gyaasehene said he had received numerous complaints about the activities of the fetish priest and his gang, and when they were building the apartments, he (the chief) invited them to the palace but they never showed up.
He said, the unfortunate killing of the boy by the teenagers is a national tragedy, and the perpetrators and their influencers must never go scot free.
“I have told my people to calm down for the police to ascertain if these people are connected to the heinous crime. The youth were ready to cause mayhem here but I had to urge them not to disturb the peace of the area and allow the police to investigate the matter,” the chief disclosed.
The chief said, “If the police come out to tell us those arrested are not guilty, we will stay with them but if they tell us they are involved in the death of the young boy, we will make sure they leave immediately.”
He said, “I can’t sit down for unscrupulous individuals to do things on the blind side our people and give Amanase a bad name,” adding, “there are a lot of foreigners living on our land but we can’t sit down for them to tarnish the hard earned reputation of Amanase. We won’t allow that!”
The Shrine
The ten single room apartments, which also serve as the shrine, is located in an isolated area on an untarred road at Hwanabenya, at Amanase.
The inscription “Every Problem That’s On You Will End – Good Heart’’ alongside a heart symbol is prominent on the façade of the pink building.
The unfenced structure with an open compound also bore the images of spiritualists.
Another two-bedroom apartment with similar images of bizarre figures bore the inscription “Be Bold – Try and See!”
All the rooms had broken doors and signs of animal rearing at the place.
Two other burglar-proof rooms stood apart from the others, and these were where the gods were said to be kept.
DAILY GUIDE gathered that the fetish priest and his wife lived with only four young men, believed to be assisting them in their activities. They reportedly fled before the police stormed the house.
A neighbour told DAILY GUIDE that there was a day some men came to the house to fight with the fetish priest for allegedly defrauding them.
FROM Daniel Bampoe, Amanase