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Dep. Speaker?s father to face court

Tue, 17 Dec 2002 Source: Ghanaian Chronicle

.....for exhuming sister?s body
It is now certain that Mr. Adolf Dzirasah, father of the second deputy Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Ken Dzirasah, and his accomplices who were reported to have exhumed the body of the late Madam Dora Dzirasah, which has sent cold shivers down the spine of residents of Tefle in the Volta region are to face prosecution.

As the residents of Tefle are yet to recover from the trauma that gripped the township following the exhumation of Dora?s body, which was buried on June 9, 2001, grandchildren of the deceased have served a notice to haul Adolf and his cronies to court.

Their threat to take legal action against Mr. Adolf Dzirasah has come following reports that he (Adolf) told the Police at Tefle that he consulted an oracle who told him that his late sister was a witch and the cause of his woes, hence the need to cremate her corpse.

He was said to have exhumed and burnt the deceased with the help of five persons, including, Togbui Aglanu, and one Akpaligah, a juju man.

Though it was reported that Adolf told the police that he could not identify the three other accomplices since the act was performed in the dark, a statement issued to the police on December 4, this year, by a grand daughter of the deceased, named Mr. Ken Dzirasah, Squadron Leader, (Rtd) Charles Dzirasah, and either the third son of Adolf or his wife as the rest of the suspects.

Reasons sources gave were that the vehicle used to convey the coffin, and the body is romoured to be the pick up of the MP. Charles had earlier declared his intention and the role he was to play by conveying lorry tyres and the son or wife for their pronouncements on the issue.

Between November 30, and December 2, this year, police arrested Adolf, Aglanu and Akpaligah, a juju man for allegedly breaking into the grave of Dora and removing her body and coffin to an unidentified location but they have since been bailed by the Speaker.

The juju man reportedly admitted that his job was to exhume bodies and he was paid by Adolf to exhume that of the late Dora. Adolf was also reported to have told the local police that the oracle he consulted told him that if the body of the deceased was not exhumed and cremated with seven live frogs, seven live cockroaches, seven lorry tyres, special firewood and other strange animals, her ghost would kill all his male sons beginning with Hon. Ken Dzirasah.

He was said to have taken the police to Agbakope, a village near Tefle, where he showed the police the spot the deceased was burnt but no traces of burning were found.

When pushed further by the police, sources say, he told them they dug a big hole and burnt the body in it and thereafter covered it, hence the absence of the ashes. When Chronicle visited Tefle over the weekend, the District Commander of Police at Sogakope, where the case has been referred, DSP. I.F Amponsah, who confirmed the story told the Chronicle that he needed time to study the document from the Tefle Police Station before passing any comment.
Meanwhile, sources at Tefle told Chronicle that Adolf and his late sister Dora had not been on talking terms for the past 20 years. According to our sources, the only attempt made to broker peace between the two was during the funeral of the deceased when Adolf requested that it was necessary that he made peace with the deceased.
The deceased grandchildren opposed this Chroncile gathered. In an interview with Mrs. Mawusi Awity, granddaughter of the deceased, she expressed fear that their lives were in danger because Adolf and his cronies might go and consult an oracle again who might this time be requesting for their blood.
And as such they want the law to take it course so that what so ever happens to them the nation would know those who are responsible. Even though efforts by the Chronicle to get the Hon. Second Deputy Speaker on his cell phone to comment proved futile.
However, he was quoted by an Accra private paper as confirming the story last Friday but complaining that there was an attempt to destroy his reputation and political career. According to the paper, Hon. Dzirasah said it is a normal custom in the Tefle area and other parts of the Volta Region for self confessed witches to be burnt.
He told the paper that he is aware that family heads are working around the clock to solve the problem. He further told the paper that he knows nothing about the exhumation of the corpse and condemned attempts to link him to the incident.
But Mrs. Awity on Monday morning again challenged Hon. Dzirasah assertion that burning of self confessed witches is a customary in the region, adding that never at any point her grandmother confessed being a witch.

.....for exhuming sister?s body
It is now certain that Mr. Adolf Dzirasah, father of the second deputy Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Ken Dzirasah, and his accomplices who were reported to have exhumed the body of the late Madam Dora Dzirasah, which has sent cold shivers down the spine of residents of Tefle in the Volta region are to face prosecution.

As the residents of Tefle are yet to recover from the trauma that gripped the township following the exhumation of Dora?s body, which was buried on June 9, 2001, grandchildren of the deceased have served a notice to haul Adolf and his cronies to court.

Their threat to take legal action against Mr. Adolf Dzirasah has come following reports that he (Adolf) told the Police at Tefle that he consulted an oracle who told him that his late sister was a witch and the cause of his woes, hence the need to cremate her corpse.

He was said to have exhumed and burnt the deceased with the help of five persons, including, Togbui Aglanu, and one Akpaligah, a juju man.

Though it was reported that Adolf told the police that he could not identify the three other accomplices since the act was performed in the dark, a statement issued to the police on December 4, this year, by a grand daughter of the deceased, named Mr. Ken Dzirasah, Squadron Leader, (Rtd) Charles Dzirasah, and either the third son of Adolf or his wife as the rest of the suspects.

Reasons sources gave were that the vehicle used to convey the coffin, and the body is romoured to be the pick up of the MP. Charles had earlier declared his intention and the role he was to play by conveying lorry tyres and the son or wife for their pronouncements on the issue.

Between November 30, and December 2, this year, police arrested Adolf, Aglanu and Akpaligah, a juju man for allegedly breaking into the grave of Dora and removing her body and coffin to an unidentified location but they have since been bailed by the Speaker.

The juju man reportedly admitted that his job was to exhume bodies and he was paid by Adolf to exhume that of the late Dora. Adolf was also reported to have told the local police that the oracle he consulted told him that if the body of the deceased was not exhumed and cremated with seven live frogs, seven live cockroaches, seven lorry tyres, special firewood and other strange animals, her ghost would kill all his male sons beginning with Hon. Ken Dzirasah.

He was said to have taken the police to Agbakope, a village near Tefle, where he showed the police the spot the deceased was burnt but no traces of burning were found.

When pushed further by the police, sources say, he told them they dug a big hole and burnt the body in it and thereafter covered it, hence the absence of the ashes. When Chronicle visited Tefle over the weekend, the District Commander of Police at Sogakope, where the case has been referred, DSP. I.F Amponsah, who confirmed the story told the Chronicle that he needed time to study the document from the Tefle Police Station before passing any comment.
Meanwhile, sources at Tefle told Chronicle that Adolf and his late sister Dora had not been on talking terms for the past 20 years. According to our sources, the only attempt made to broker peace between the two was during the funeral of the deceased when Adolf requested that it was necessary that he made peace with the deceased.
The deceased grandchildren opposed this Chroncile gathered. In an interview with Mrs. Mawusi Awity, granddaughter of the deceased, she expressed fear that their lives were in danger because Adolf and his cronies might go and consult an oracle again who might this time be requesting for their blood.
And as such they want the law to take it course so that what so ever happens to them the nation would know those who are responsible. Even though efforts by the Chronicle to get the Hon. Second Deputy Speaker on his cell phone to comment proved futile.
However, he was quoted by an Accra private paper as confirming the story last Friday but complaining that there was an attempt to destroy his reputation and political career. According to the paper, Hon. Dzirasah said it is a normal custom in the Tefle area and other parts of the Volta Region for self confessed witches to be burnt.
He told the paper that he is aware that family heads are working around the clock to solve the problem. He further told the paper that he knows nothing about the exhumation of the corpse and condemned attempts to link him to the incident.
But Mrs. Awity on Monday morning again challenged Hon. Dzirasah assertion that burning of self confessed witches is a customary in the region, adding that never at any point her grandmother confessed being a witch.

Source: Ghanaian Chronicle