Revered python swallows its priestess

Sapeliga (U/E), June 30, GNA - A python revered as a god in the Sapeliga community near Bawku on Sunday night swallowed a 55-year-old fetish priestess assigned to be its mouthpiece.

While looking for the priestess who had been missing for three days, the inhabitants decided to slash the python into two, only to find her badly decomposed body.

Narrating the incident to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mr Sunday Ali, son of the deceased, said he visited the mother on Saturday on his way to Bawku from Zebilla and promised to bring her some items she had requested for.

He said on his return on Tuesday, he found the mother's door ajar, which suggested she had not gone far and decided to wait for her but she did not appear.

Mr Ali said after waiting for over two hours he entered the mother's room upon smelling a foul odour emitting from it, only to find the place in disarray and a left over soup that had gone bad. He said he went out to a neighbour to inquire about his mother's whereabouts but he was told she had not been seen since Sunday evening raising his suspicion of a bad omen befalling the mother.

Ali said together with other neighbours they combed the surroundings in vain before one of the elders of the oracle suggested that they should consult the god to tell the mother's whereabouts. According to Ali, as soon as the elder entered the python's enclosure he realised that the size of the god had bloated and called the attention of the rest.

He explained that the python could not move after some attempts to move it and this aroused their suspicion that it might have swallowed his mother so it was killed after performing some rituals. An assemblywoman, and a retired journalist of the Ghana News Agency, Madam Elizabeth Awini confirmed the incident and added that she had made several pleas to the community that it was dangerous to keep the python but they did not heed to her advice till this incident. The deceased has since been buried.