Strange death hits sisters

When residents of Madina New Road saw the obituaries of Esther Ziddah nee Aflakpui and her elder sister, they thought it was a mere coincidence for two members of the same nuclear family living many miles apart to die within days.

However when they heard that Esther?s elder sister died just after her own elder sister had died, they begun to sense the unusualness in the trend and thought it was too much for the family.

After low-key ceremonies in Madina for Esther, the family and some sympathizers headed for Anyako in the Volta Region to give the two sisters a fitting burial. The first elder sister had already been buried.

That was when the story got more bizarre. Two more sisters died. The story making the rounds is that a close family relation had borrowed money from an undisclosed source and had subsequently refused to pay.

The person from whom the money was borrowed had apparently gone to a shrine to collect the money. As a custom, the shrine or oracle will thus go and look for the money from the borrower. In effect members of the family will die till the debt is settled.

The issue has become a big debate about whether black magic really exists. Some are saying that the situation is a natural one that has a very scientific explanation.

Their arguments would have carried more weight if all the sisters lived together. In this case it is not so, Esther for example lived far away in Madina- Accra.

Those who give weight to the story seem to be getting the upper hand since others have confirmed that similar situations have taken place in parts of the northern Region.

According to one man from the Northern Region, it is the custom in the North for a family to force members to settle all debts since they could become liable if the money was not paid.

Whether there is really anything like black power or not, cannot easily be known from the test tube. What is certain however is that it will take a scientist a lot of explanation to convince residents of Madina New Road what has happened to their neighbour and her family.