One of the suspects lynching the 90-year-old woman
A 90-year-old woman has been lynched at Kafaba in the East Gonja Municipality in the Savannah Region.
The woman was openly beaten to death by a so-called soothsayer with support from a mob in the community last Thursday.
The body has since been transported to the Tamale Teaching Hospital for autopsy.
DAILY GUIDE gathered that the said soothsayer was brought into the community to allegedly cast out witchcraft and after some purported rituals, he labelled the 90-year-old woman as a witch.
When the poor woman was informed, she denied being a witch and appealed to the soothsayer to spare her, but her plea fell on deaf ears.
The incident has sparked outrage, forcing the security agencies to switch into action.
As a result of the dastardly act, the Salaga Divisional Police Command has dispatched police personnel to Kafaba to ascertain the cause of the lynching of the woman.
The Municipality Security Council (MUSEC) also met to find solutions to the incident.
The family of the deceased is calling for the arrest of the chief of the town and perpetrators of the act.
The family’s spokesperson, Dominic Mahama, told journalists yesterday that before the death of their mother, her room was forcibly broken into by community members and the matter was reported to the chief, but he failed to do anything about it until she was finally killed two days later.
He called on the police to expedite their investigations and prosecute the perpetrators to serve as a deterrent to other community members.
A joint statement issued by development organizations like Songtaba, ActionAid and NORSAAC is calling on law enforcement agencies to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of this inhumane act.
Civil society organizations (CSOs) are giving the police a three-day ultimatum to make the arrest, since the faces of the perpetrators were very visible in viral videos during the “execution”.
“It is rather unfortunate the perpetrators in this dastardly act are heard to be praising God, saying ‘Allahu Akbar’. Violence has never been part of Islamic teachings and will never be. We are concerned that violence against women continues to be one of the most pervasive manifestations of discrimination against women and violations of their human rights in Northern Ghana,” they stated.
Madam Laminatu Adam, Chief Executive Director, Songtaba, who addressed the media on behalf of the CSOs, called on the Islamic community to speak out and condemn the non-Islamic act that had been associated with a religion known to be preaching peace.
“We also call on traditional authorities who are the custodians of the culture and justice system in their jurisdictions to condemn this act and support to secure justice for the deceased.
“Gender-based violence cannot be accepted in this 21st century when Ghana is a signatory to many international conventions and protocols to protect the lives and dignity of every Ghanaian,” she said.
FROM Eric Kombat, Kafaba