Story: Kofi Yeboah, Bibiani
THE arrest of four persons suspected to be the masterminds behind the recent ritual murders in Bibiani in the Western Region has unleashed a feeling of relief in the town as most residents claim they can now go about their duties without fear.
A few months ago, fear and insecurity gripped the town, with the mantra “one head, one KIA” making the rounds, implying, “If you produce one human head for ritual purposes, you walk away with one KIA truck.”
That was the cruel and barbaric requirement which some people in Bibiani yielded to in their burning desire to get rich quick and for which residents of one of the famous mining towns in the Western Region lived in fear as suspected ritual murderers went on the rampage, killing anyone they could lay hands on, including pregnant women, children and hunchbacks.
The four suspects who are currently standing trial at a Sekondi High Court have pleaded innocent to the charge but police sources told the Daily Graphic that they had credible evidence to prove the guilt of the suspects.
According to the District Police Commander for Bibiani, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Anane Appiah, the arrest of the four suspects had brought joy to the residents, some of whom had been afraid to expose the suspects, although they knew them.
Many of the residents told the Daily Graphic that they no longer entertained any fear as they did previously, adding that they could now go about their daily activities freely.
That relief notwithstanding, the horrific experiences of ritual murders appear to be having a severe toll on businesses and development in Bibiani.
Many professionals such as teachers, nurses, paramedics and public servants are reported to have turned down posting to the town, while the number of traders who travel from various parts of the country to do business there has reduced drastically, all as a result of the alleged ritual murders.
Confirming that development, many traders interviewed said business was not flourishing now, compared to the past, because some market women who travelled from other parts of the country to trade in the town, particularly on market days, had stopped.
The Chief of Bibiani and Krontihene of the Sefwi Anwhiaso Traditional Area, Nana Ngoa Kodom, who corroborated that development, said, “We are not happy about the situation.”
For a long time the Sefwi area has earned a rather bad name as a haven for ritual murderers and a ‘market centre’ for the sale of human parts.
The infamous case in the mid-1980s of a nine-year-old boy, Kofi Kyintoh, who was beheaded by his uncle for ritual purposes, as well as many other ritual murder cases and instances of persons caught in possession of human parts in the area, inundated the media in the past.
Recently, Bibiani has come under the media spotlight in view of the horrific cases of suspected ritual murders in the town which targeted girls and hunchbacks.
Despite the new lease of security in the town, some residents are yet to exorcise the ghost of the past.
“Today, it is girls and hunchbacks; you don’t know who will be the target next time,” Nana Kodom, intimated.
Efforts to get a hunchback for an interview proved futile, as nobody seemed to know the whereabouts of any of them. In many instances, the responses given to questions were heavily laden with suspicion.
Indeed, one observation made by the Daily Graphic during a two-day visit to the town was that some people, particularly females, were sceptical about talking to strangers.
A young man who appeared friendly by offering unsolicited hospitality from a distance smelled badly of alcohol at close range, and without being helpful to the cause of news gathering, succeeded in earning for himself GH¢1.
Distraught by the alleged ritual murder cases and the bad image they were giving Bibiani, Nana Kodom expressed the belief that the situation could have been handled through traditional means, noting regrettably that the growing lack of respect for chiefs and the authority of the chieftaincy institution prevented that from happening.
He said before the advent of Christianity and the modern system of policing, chiefs had a way of dealing with such crimes by making suspects swear oaths, explaining that if the suspects were guilty of the crime, they were promptly exposed.
However, Nana Kodom said it was now difficult for a chief to summon anyone to swear an oath on suspicion of committing a crime because of the different religious persuasions of the citizenry.
Although he could not ascertain whether or not the recent murders were in connection with rituals, he admitted, “As a traditional ruler, I don’t discard the truth in ritual murders.”
Nana Kodom advised residents of the town not to hesitate to inform the police or the traditional authorities about the activities of suspected ritual murderers “because we can’t allow such atrocities to be happening in our society”.
He assured all Ghanaians that the people of Bibiani were kind, friendly and loving and so nobody should entertain any fear of doing business there or working in the town.
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