The overlord of the Wala Traditional Area, Wa Naa, Naa Fuseini Seidu Pelpuo IV, has decreed that prescribed prayers and sacrifices be offered to clamp down on occurrences of alleged ritual murders within the traditional area.
He made the call on the Landlords (Tenddeme), Imams (Limaanhi), and leaders of other religious groups in the traditional area on Monday at a press briefing on the alleged ritual murders in the traditional area and the steps the traditional council had taken to help arrest the situation.
Naa Pelpuo warned that the outcome of the prescribed prayers and sacrifices would be inimical to the perpetrators and those who might try to blaspheme them.
“I assure all that the outcome of the prayers and sacrifices will not be pleasant for those who will be foolhardy to try to test their efficacy”, he said.
He urged the general public to “contribute to make this possible to ensure that we flush out the murderers among us” by supporting the Tenddeme, Limaanhi, and the religious leaders when need is to carry out the prayers and sacrifices.
Naa Pelpuo also hinted that the traditional council would, as part efforts to help fight the crime, hold talks with the police to discuss a possible joint police-civilian patrols.
He said the activities of money rituals and the get-rich-quick attitude of people through the killing, harvesting and sale of human parts has made people of the traditional area to live in fear.
“The negative effects of these murders on socio-economic activities in the traditional area cannot be quantified, and if measures are not taken to stop them, other areas of our lives would also soon be affected”, he said.
The Wa Naa also commended the Inspector General of Police (IGP,) Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, for his resolve to curtail the menace.
He said the IGP’s decision to send personnel of the police services to beef up the intelligence and information gathering unit of the Upper West Region police command to unravel the perpetrators of the heinous acts showed his commitment to fighting the menace.
He noted that the perpetrators of the crime killings were being shielded by the silence of some members of the society which caused the crime to continue over some time.
“We cannot fight this crime by being complicit through our own inactions and silence,” the Wa Naa stated, calling on the members of the society to live by the “See Something, Say Something” mantra.
“No matter the efficacy of our security apparatus, it will still be hopeless if we refuse to supply it with relevant information”, Naa Pelpuo added.
In the spate of three months, three murder cases had been recorded in Wa including the killing of a 60-year private security man of a school at Napogbakole, a suburb of Wa on April 18, 2022, and the killing of an unidentified man at SNNIT, also a suburb of Wa on June 16, 2022; both were shallowly buried and the latter stomach was visibly cut opened.
The latest incident was the killing of a 62-year-old private security man at Kpaguri, a suburb of Wa with his stomach cut opened and also shallowly buried in an uncompleted building near his place of work on July 31, 2022.