La Priestess denies cursing Police

Accra, Oct. 25, GNA - A Priestess at La in Accra on Wednesday vehemently denied ever cursing the La Police in a dispute over a piece of land.

"This is not true. I have no problem with the Police and I did not curse them," the Priestess, Shankie, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra.

"I have not stolen any property of the Police and they have also not stolen any property of mine. Why should I curse them?" She asked, when she came to the GNA to deny the statement of the La Divisional Police, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Andane Nyamekye about the curse.

The La Divisional Police said on Tuesday that the Police had prayed to God to revoke a curse pronounced on the Police by Shankie and seven others, who had been served with a notice of summons after they had disrupted work on a project site.

The Police said Shankie and the seven other accomplices had invoked death to any Police Officer, who tried to arrest them for demolishing a public toilet being put up by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) on a land which they claimed ownership.

Police said Shankie performed the ritual at the entrance of the project site to curse the contractor, AMA and the La Police. He said to avoid any further problems, the Police decided to take criminal action against the Priestess and her group. Police served the summons on three of them on Monday.

Shankie and the seven others are charged with three counts of unlawful entry, causing unlawful damage and damage to a fence wall and a building trench, property of the AMA.

However, Shankie said the dispute was not with the AMA but an individual, who had been constructing a toilet on their land. She said her late mother gave a piece of land to AMA to construct a toilet. Later another person constructed another toilet on another part of the land and they protested

Recently, when a different man began constructing another toilet in the same area they challenged him and took legal action against him. The case is in court.

"I was surprised when I was told that about 20 armed Policemen came to my house over the issue. I did not curse anybody and I have no cause to curse the Police. I was asked to reverse an earlier curse by some people so I have no problem with the Police," Shankie said. She said she was also a traditional healer and she normally bathed sick people on a dunghill in the area.

"That area is a hideout for drug addicts and peddlers. The Police are aware of this," Shankie said.