Sisters Keepers Association commiserates with family of lynched nonagenarian

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Sisters Keepers, a non profit women charity association, has called on the traditional authorities in East Gonja to help curb the alarming rate of mob justice by sanctioning culprits.

The association condemned the act of subjecting the aged, especially old women to abuses and torture.

The group made this call when they visited the bereaved family of slain Akua Denteh in Salaga. The nonagenarian was accused of being a witch by a sorcerer and was stoned to death last month.

The barbaric act was met with a great deal of public condemnation by government officials, NGOs and Civil Society groups and associations.

Sisters Keepers Association of Ghana visited the bereaved family, assuring them of their support in these trying times. The members also visited the Kafaba community where the incident took place to interact with the chief and the people.

The Charity Director of the Ghana Chapter of the Association, Hajia Fauzia Karim, appealed to the traditional overlord of the area to sanction persons who take the laws into their own hands.

“Traditional authorities have a key role to play in this fight and for us as an organization, we believe it is time for the overlord of the area to put in place severe sanctions for those who abuse women be it their family or not,” she said.

She called for more education on human rights violations, adding old age comes with dementia. “At a certain age, dementia sets in and one behaves strangely which many misconstrued for witchery.”

On her part, the Head of Communications of the Association, Abena Pokua Ahwenee assured members of the community that the association will organize sensitization programs for them in the coming months.

The team also visited the Kpembewura Banbagne Ndefeso IV at his palace in Kpembe.

Meanwhile, the police have arrested one Sherina Mohammed, the sorcerer who masterminded the lynching of 90-year-old Akua Denteh in the Savannah Region town of Kafaba.

The 40-year-old woman known as ‘Alhajia’ was arrested by the police at her hideout at Yeji in the Bono East Region.

“She is in police custody”, a statement posted by the Ghana Police Service on Facebook read.

The late Denteh, a fortnight ago, was tortured and killed at Kafaba after she was accused of being a witch.

The latest arrest comes 24 hours after a court in Bole remanded Latifa Bumaye, one of the women captured in a viral video whipping the late old woman into police custody.

The Kafaba chief, Zackaria Yahaya, who was earlier arrested has been granted bail. This brings the number of arrests to seven after five suspects were remanded by a court in Bole.

According to the police, the five suspects in their statements indicated that the chief did not play any role in the development.

They said he even asked them to send the priestess away when they went to introduce her to him before the lynching incident.

Source: Daily Mail GH