Five suspects in Kafaba lynching remanded

The five persons who were arrested in connection with the lynching of Akua Dentah, a 90-year-old woman at Kafaba, have been remanded for three weeks.

This was after their appearance before the Bole District Magistrate Court today [Thusday] where they were arraigned.

They are yet to be charged with any crime.

The three-week period is to accommodate a new investigator who had to take over the case.

The transfer of the case from a district to a regional level court necessitated the change in the investigator.

Investigations were initially taking place in Salaga East before the shift to Damongo, where the regional capital is located.

The five suspects were handed over to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Savannah Regional Police Command at Damongo after their arrest on Wednesday.

The only other arrest over the lynching was that of the Chief of Kafaba, Zackaria Yahaya, who was questioned by police.

But the main suspects following the lynching, a traditional priestess and two others, are yet to be picked up.

It was the priestess who is said to have fingered Akua Denteh as a witch.

The incident was captured on camera and went viral.

What followed was public outrage and condemnation of the culture of witchcraft accusations.

The priestess is believed to be the woman in the video leading the lynching.

Aside from the main suspects in the lynching, the victim’s family maintained that the chief had some knowledge of the activities of the priestess.

The police put up a bounty of GHS2,000 for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators.