A 49-year-old self-styled spiritualist-cum-herbalist is in the custody of the Adentan District Police Command for fingering two women who sought help from him.
Odartey Lamptey, who lives at Ashaley Botwe near Madina, also claims he has been operating for the past 15 years and is well known in the area for solving spiritual problems and healing all sorts of ailments.
However, the visit of two ladies to his outfit to seek solutions to their problems uncovered Lamptey’s tricks which he uses to extort money from his clients.
The Adentan Police Commander, Superintendent Stephen Ahiatafu, told DAILY GUIDE that on Monday August 17, 2009, two women from the same vicinity, aged 29 and 19, visited the home of Lamptey, where he operates as a herbalist to respectively seek solutions to their problems.
The 29-year-old lady had gone to the herbalist accompanied by her husband to seek help for her childlessness; the woman had been diagnosed as having fibroid - a situation she believed was the cause of her bareness.
She was made to pay a consultation fee of GH¢50 and stripped naked in the full glare of her husband and herbalist.
The herbalist then ordered her to lie on a mat he laid on the floor of the consulting room, while her husband sat on her stomach facing her.
The herbalist then squatted at the rear end and at the blind side of the husband, inserted two fingers into the woman’s vagina under the guise of dousing her womb with some concoctions.
According to the victim, the herbalist fingered her as though ‘he was stirring porridge’ for about two minutes after which he showed them a solid substance as the fibroid which he claimed he had removed from her womb.
Later in the day, the 19-year-old girl was brought to the herbalist by her mother who said she suffered very severe menstrual disorders.
She was also stripped naked and asked to lie on the mat after paying GH¢50 as consultation fee.
Her mother was asked to sit on her and fondle her breast so as to allow whatsoever was in her tummy and causing the pain to come out easily, which she complied.
While her mother sat on the girl, facing her, the herbalist squatted behind the woman and inserted his two fingers into the vagina of the girl and began the stirring process after which a solid substance among other things were shown to them as the cause of the girl’s ordeal.
The delighted woman thanked the herbalist but requested to take the substance home to show to her husband.
However, hell broke loose when an inspection conducted by the father of the girl revealed that the substance was a mixture of fresh mutton (meat) and glue.
The girl's family rushed to the house of the 29-year-old lady whose husband joined forces with them to confront Lamptey.
He pleaded with them not to report him to the authorities and offered to compensate them with GH¢150 each but the victims refused.
They then lodged a complaint at the District Police Headquarters at Adentan and on Friday August 21, 2009, the fake herbalist was arrested.
He has since been kept in police custody and would be arraigned before court after investigations.
Odartey Lamptey, according to the police, has since confessed to the crime in his caution statement. He also indicated that he normally charged his clients according to their economic status and mostly requested provisions in addition to the consultation fee.
Clients were also required to re-visit once they realized their problems were solved to show a special appreciation to him in whatever manner they wished.
However, they normally did not return because, most often, the problems resurfaced, according to sources.
