By Murtala Issah
Pagba Saha Foundation has appealed to President Akufo-Addo to intervene and ensure justice for a sixty-year-old woman accused of witchcraft and shot to death at Janga in the West Mamprusi District of the North East Region.
Mma Azaratu Musah Poanaah was accused by two men of bewitching their relatives and causing their illness.
The two men are said to have dragged Mma Azaratu out of her room and shot her to death about a month ago.
In a statement released to mark International Day of the Rural Woman, Pagba Saha Foundation, condemned the incident describing it as barbaric and having no place in the 21st century.
Witchcraft accusations are widespread across Ghana, but worst in Northern Ghana where old vulnerable women are often accused of witchcraft and tortured to death or chased out of their communities.
Those who manage to escape their assailants, take refuge in camps designated as “old people’s homes,” where they live largely in penury and isolation from their loved ones. Recently, Parliament passed the anti-witchcraft law, criminalising witchcraft accusations, however, the development has not deterred perpetrators from accusing and killing people they suspect of possessing witchcraft.
The CEO of Pagba Saha Foundation, Hajia Sawuratu Alhassan, who is also the Timtooni Naa of the Yaa Naa, is therefore calling for the arrest and prosecution of the murderers of Mma Azaratu. She also called for stiffer punishment for such persons and adequate protection of every person living in Ghana irrespective of social status.