WOMAN ACCUSED OF WITCHCRAFT CALLS FOR JUSTICE (PAGE 11, JAN 14, 2010)

A52-year-old woman from Sokpeyiri, a village in the Wa West District in the Upper West Region, who was allegedly subjected to inhuman treatment by a soothsayer and two other persons, is calling for justice.
The woman, Madam Sunkari Ghanyi, said she felt humiliated, depressed and demoralised when she was wrongly accused of being a witch and having a hand in the death of her husband’s relative for which she was forced to drink a concoction, which has since had some psychological effects on her.
She explained that the concoction was made of the blood of a slaughtered fowl mixed with water and sand, as well as the chopped legs of a live toad.
Madam Ghanyi, who was in the company of some members of her family, called at the Wa office of the Daily Graphic to narrate her story, is, therefore, appealing to the Chief Justice and human rights organisations to intervene in the matter so that justice would be done.
Amid sobbing, she said, “I feel I have been handed a raw deal by the Wa District Magistrate’s Court, which acquitted and discharged the three suspects involved in the matter”.
She said sometime in the year 2008, the wife of her husband’s nephew had some complications during pregnancy and died while in labour together with her unborn baby at the Wa Hospital.
She said a few months after the death of the woman, her brother-in-law, one Bagabu Naa, who had travelled to the southern part of the country at the time of the death of the woman, returned to Sokpeyiri and did not take kindly to the news of the death of his daughter-in-law.
She said Bagabu Naa, in the company of one Kojo Zineta, who was the guardian of the deceased, went in for a soothsayer known as Naasoyili Anderanaa to find out the cause of the death of the woman.
She said she (Ghanyi) and others were assembled by the soothsayer, who performed some rituals.
She said the soothsayer first pointed at one woman as the one who caused the death of the pregnant woman but her children, who were around, protested vehemently as a result of which the soothsayer rescinded the decision.
She said after a few incantations, he pointed to another person, whose children also resisted all attempts to blame their mother for the death of the pregnant woman.
She said the soothsayer then pointed to her as the main culprit who caused the death of the pregnant woman and her unborn baby.
She said because she did not have anyone to talk for her, she was not given a hearing after she and her son challenged the soothsayer, who, she said, by then had the total support of those present.
In the ensuing hot exchanges, Madam Ghanyi said the soothsayer then claimed he was going to prepare some concoction for her to drink and that if she did not confess within three days she would die.
“He already had some liquid in a calabash and so he slaughtered a fowl, poured the blood into the calabash, mixed it with sand and added the chopped legs of a live toad after which he (the soothsayer) asked me to drink,” she said, amid tears, adding that for fear of her life, she had no choice but to gulp down the concoction.
Madam Ghanyi said when after three days nothing happened to her, Bagabu Naa, her brother-in-law threatened to kill her and so she ran to Wa to inform a relative, who suggested that they reported the matter to the police.
She said the three, Bagabu Naa, Kojo Zineta and the soothsayer, Naasoyili Anderanaa, were charged after police investigations and processed before court but after almost two years of court sittings, the accused persons were acquitted and discharged.
She said the whole incident had affected her psychologically and that she sometimes did not feel like a human being who deserved to live, adding that as a result of the threats on her life, among other accusations, she had been compelled to run away from Sokpeyiri for her safety.