Maame Water Grips Bui

Though it is too weird for the eye to behold, it has really happened in a part of this country.

A river goddess which looks like a mermaid, known in local parlance as ‘Maame Water’, has been trapped and caught alive at the Bui River, where the Bui Hydro Electric Dam is currently under construction.

The strange mammal, which has a human head and very long whitish hair with two crawling fore limbs like the lizard, has a snake lower body. It is suspected to be over 100m long and wails continuously like a whale with great echo.

DAILY GUIDE has the video footage of the mermaid which was allegedly taken by some residents of Tain and Chinese officials.

The monster, which is said to be the spirit of the river until its capture, was believed to be behind the mysterious destruction of the bridge being built across the dam. It took a team of Chinese spiritualists employed from China to trap it, the reports claim.

The same monster was said to have appeared in Togo and Nigeria, causing alarm among residents.

The Ghanaian workers at the dam are said to have refused to work alone under the dam without the Chinese ever since the weird news of the mermaid popped up.

DAILY GUIDE gathered that the strange mammal was grabbed last Thursday at the Wa end of the Bui River, which is a tributary of the Black Volta, after it managed to drag the snare which trapped it from the Bui Dam site to that far. They traced it from the Bui River and finally caught up with it around the Wa area and caged it.

The Chinese officials allegedly brought it to Nsawkaw, the capital of the Tain District on Friday, for the members of the public to catch a glimpse of it.

Reports are that the Chinese sent it to the Nsawkaw Hospital for some special injection to ostensibly tame it, but it could not be done because there was no zoologist at the facility to administer the injection.

The reports even claimed the Chinese had sent the monster to Accra.

The news of the river goddess spread like Harmattan fire as it attracted hundreds of residents to the Nsawkaw hospital to catch a glimpse of it.

It however took brave persons to get closer to it due to its strange looks and wild groan.

The bizarre development, which has become the main talk of the area, has been received with mixed reactions, with some entertaining fears that the capture of the river goddess could have some negative repercussions on the people in the district, while others believe that it could not bring any bad omen to the land.

Daniel K. Boateng and Shaggy, both residents of Nsawkaw who went to the scene, told DAILY GUIDE that the mermaid was earlier kept in the open where some brave residents videoed it.

According to them, some of the workers at the dam informed them that the river goddess killed one expatriate a few months ago when he attempted to trap it.

They said the mermaid had been the cause of some mystery deaths among the workers at the dam site because it was supposedly against the energy project.

Meanwhile, officials of the Bui Power Project have rejected the claims, saying that no such strange mammal had been found at the area and there had not been any cracks caused by the said mermaid to the dam as workers were going about their normal duties at the dam.

The PRO, Gabriel Apatu, described the rumours as a fabrication since nothing of that nature had occurred in the river.

He said he had not seen the video containing the said river goddess at the time DAILY GUIDE contacted him.

He however described the video footage as a fabrication and said it was not coming from Bui.

The Tain District Chief Executive, Jones Samuel Tawiah, has also denied the arrest of the said river goddess.

According to him, nothing of that nature had been brought to his attention.

Meanwhile, construction works on the dam is about 90% complete with the first power production expected in October this year.