11 Ghanaians murdered in Togo

Eleven Ghanaians have reportedly been murdered in Togo.

It is not clear who committed the act but Police sources in Togo say Ghanaian passports and voters’ ID cards were found on the bodies.

The victims, who were beheaded and shot, are believed to be Bimoabas living around Bunkprugu and Chereponi in the Northern region.

They were believed to be victims of “modern Day slavery” from Northern Ghana and were returning home after a yearlong toiling in farm fields of wealthy commercial farmers in Nigeria.

There is a common practice in the two poverty-stricken districts where parents of teenagers are often tricked to enter a year agreement with some rich individuals from Nigeria, according to a resident of Saboba, Yaw ‘Operator’.

The parents are promised good jobs and improved living condition for their wards before the teenagers are handed over to their new masters after an initial amount is paid, Starr News gathered.

A former assemblyman for Wanjuga in the Northern region Kofi Kwadwo Daniel who visited the hospital where the victims were sent to in Togo, has told Starr News’ Eliasu Tanko that the bodies have been deposited at a morgue in Kara, a town in Togo.

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Chereponi Hajia Mary Naboku has confirmed the incident.

The Togo Police, according to reports, are therefore asking Ghanaian residents living around Chereponi, Bunkprugu and Saboba to come to Kara to see if their relatives were involved.

The development comes on the back of the swearing in of a new Ghanaian President, a ceremony which was attended by the Togolese leader Faure Gnassingbé on Saturday, January 7.

In 2005, 44 Ghanaian travelers were murdered in The Gambia in a similar fashion, while the new President Nana Akufo-Addo was foreign affairs minister of Ghana.