(Editorial of the Daily Searchlight of Tuesday,, 19th July,, 2022.)
There seem to be a resurgence and re-emergence of all manner of fraudsters, deploying and employing all manner of tricks to swindle the innocent out of their hard-earned wealth. Once in a while, the activities of these social misfits travel out of all proportion, leading o inhumane and totally reprehensible results, such as murder.
The Ghana Police Service have announced that it has arrested three persons in connection with the murder of a 27-year-old lady at Sefwi Bekwai Atwumsah in the Western North Region.
The deceased, known as Martha Tetteh, a resident of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, had travelled to Sefwi Bekwai on June 27, 2022, allegedly to consult a spiritualist.
A statement signed by Chief Superintendent of Police Grace Ansah-Akrofi, Director, Public Affairs, and copied the press, said Martha’s headless body was later found dumped in an uncompleted building at Sefwi Bekwai.
The Police said the suspects, Solomon Sam, alias Paa Solo, John Nana Addai, alias Akwasi Kokoreh and Osofo Attah, alias Prince Attah, who is alleged to be a spiritualist, were arrested following Police investigations.
The statement said Solomon, who allegedly introduced the deceased to the self-styled spiritualist, was arrested on July 12, 2022, at his hideout at Bibiani.
It said further investigation led to the arrest of suspect Osofo Attah, the spiritualist.
The Police said during the interrogation, suspect Osofo Attah admitted to being involved in the crime and mentioned John Nana Addai, as the one who contracted Solomon to lure the victim to Sefwi Bekwai to consult the spiritualist.
The statement said John was also arrested on July 20, 2022, at Sefwi Atronsu.
It would seem that to combat the merging menace of these swindlers and itinerant murderers, the nation has to adopt several measures.
The first is that all effort should be made to educate the general public that financial and social well-being cannot be found at the feet of any fetishist or priest (yes, a lot of the self-styled priests are con-artists) and that it is only through hard work and innovation that one can improve one’s circumstances.
The second thing we can do as a nation, is to tackle the menace of people promising instant wealth, frontally. We can do this by deploying tried and tested methods that expose racketeers, put these misfits before court, and ensure that they are jailed. We should be totally uncompromising about this.
The third thing we must do, is work to improve financial well-being generally for all Ghanaians and people living in Ghana. People without opportunities are susceptible to abuse; thereby ending up losing even the little that they have. In Martha’s case, she paid with her life.
We hope that this is the last time we would hear that some unfortunate has been killed in such circumstances.
(This article was first published in the column EDITORIAL of the Daily Searchlight of Tuesday,, 19th July,, 2022. The Daily Searchlight appears on the newsstands of Ghana every working day and PDF versions are available for sale online twenty-four hours a day all day throughout the world on www.ghananewsstand.com).
