Police retrieve human head from shrine, arrest 4 suspects

Four persons were arrested at the shrine during the swoop at Akatapo, a village near Amasaman in the Greater Accra Region.

The police also retrieved a human head in a black polythene bag which had been placed on one of the idols at the shrine.

Those arrested are Wortanu Selase, 19, Kwame Gbedze, 20, Anane Dunyo, 39, and Lawson Yaw, 52.

Decomposed head

Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Public Relations Officer of the Accra Regional Police Command, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mrs Efia Tenge, said the human head, which was in an advanced stage of decomposition, was found with a telephone number written on a piece of paper and tied around it.

The decomposed state, she said, made it difficult to identify whether the head was that of a male or female.

The police, she added, had, therefore, deposited the decomposed human head at the Police Hospital morgue where the Autopsy Department would examine and forward a report to the Greater Accra Regional Command for further investigations.

Fetish priest

The fetish priest and owner of the shrine is currently on the run and is alleged to have been engaged in several rituals, especially money doubling rituals, for his clients.

Acting on intelligence, Mrs Tenge noted, the Amasaman Divisional Police Command, about 11 a.m. on February 1, 2018, proceeded to the shrine where the four men were arrested.

“Even though the four men were found in the shrine, we are yet to find out if they were those who brought the head to the shrine for ritual purpose or not,” she stated.

During interrogations, she said, the suspects told the police they had worked with the fetish priest for periods ranging between five and 20 years.

While Gbedze claimed to be the son of the fetish priest, Dunyo and Selase said they were assistants to the fetish priest, while Yao claimed he had worked as a herbalist at the shrine for the past 20 years.