Blame Pastors, Imams, traditionalists for labelling women witches – PNC women

The women’s wing of the Peoples’ National Convention (PNC) has blamed the plight of the Ghanaian woman living in “constant fear of being brutalised or lynched as a witch” on religious bodies across the country.

This follows the beating to death of a ninety-year-old woman who was labelled a witch at Kafaba in the Savannah Region.

She was accused of witchcraft 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.

The heart-wrenching video was first published by Accra-based TV3.

The PNC women’s wing noted that the country’s “Pastors, Imams and the traditional believers” are to be blamed due to their constant sermons “that refer to women as witches in the media.”

A statement issued by the PNC women’s wing signed by its organiser, Janet Nabla, expressed disappointment with the “barbaric act".

The statement called on the women of Ghana to “wake up from their slumber and fight their own salvation with fear and trembling," adding that "The life of a woman in Ghana is valueless to both the politician and the religious body.”

“The Ghanaian woman lives in constant fear of being brutalised or lynched as a witch on a daily basis. Whereas all these things are happening, our religious bodies such as pastors, Imams and the traditional believers are mostly to be blamed as a result of their constant sermons that refer to women as witches in the media. These religious bodies are not usually reprimanded by the institutions that are put in place to sanitise our airwaves and to protect women and children such as the National Media Commission, Ministry of information and Gender Ministry.”

The statement also referred to a similar incident which occurred at Pelungu in the Talensi district where a 60-year-old woman was beaten by the community and she died of broken bones due to their perception that she was a witch in 2017. “This is evil, demonic and satanic and we must all rise up as Ghanaians to fight this cancer in our society," the PNC women's wing said.

The women further called on the First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo and wife of Vice-President, Samira Bawumia and the Ministry of Gender “to show to the women of Ghana that they have them at heart. It happened in Pelungu in the Talensi district in 2017 and they did nothing about it and it has repeated itself in East Gonja."

They also appealed to all “NGOs and Civil Society Organisations to rise up so that the perpetrators of this heinous crime will be arrested and punished to serve as a deterrent to others even if it means arresting the whole community."