90-year-old’s lynching: Help us punish the culprits – Gonja chiefs to police, public

The Gonja Traditional Council has called on the security agencies and members of the general public to expedite action in finding those who lynched a 90-year old woman at Kafaba in the Savanna Region.

The Council, in a press statement issued on 25 July 2020, said the “barbaric act of violence” was “perpetrated on the blind side of the Traditional Authority.”

The Overlord of the Gonja Kingdom, Yagbonwura Tuntumba Bore Essa, therefore, called on his “people and the general public to assist the kingdom and the security agencies to identify the culprits and bring them to book.”

He also asked his subjects to “allow customary law and the laws of Ghana in resolving such challenges to eschew violence.”

Frail Akua Danteh was lynched following an accusation of witchcraft levelled against her by a seer, who had been invited by the villagers to help them drive away their misfortunes.

Scores of the locals watched aloof as two women flogged and bludgeoned the helpless grandmother despite her pleas of innocence.

A cross-section of Ghanaians have condemned the cruel act.

On Monday, 27 July 2020, President Nana Akufo-Addo said the lynching incident has “disfigured the face of our nation.”

Mr Akufo-Addo said he hopes “the quick response of the police will lead to the rapid administration of justice in this unfortunate matter”.

Meanwhile, a foundation has been set up in the victim’s name to help fight the culture of lynching of alleged witches.

The President said: “I will make an appropriate contribution to the Akua Denteh Foundation to express my own revulsion at the awful, tragic act that has occurred in this region.”

Others prominent persons who have condemned the lynching include former President John Mahama, former President Jerry John Rawlings, former First Lady Lordina Mahama and her foundation and the vice-presidential aspirant of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang.