Man kills nephew for rituals

A Togolese involved in illegal gold mining at Wassa-Manhyia in the Amenfi Central District in the Western Region has been busted by the police for allegedly beheading his 15-year-old nephew for ritual purposes.

The suspect, Godfred Petit Silevi, 22, was said to have committed the crime together with another Togolese, Samuel Kwami Silevi, alias Hammer Boy, who is currently on the run.

They committed the crime in the early hours of yesterday with the intention of using the head of the deceased, Wofa Atitso, a student, for ritual purposes to raise GH¢2,000 in order to travel abroad.

According to the police in Sekondi, Godfred, who initially denied conspiring to murder and murdering his nephew, later burst into tears and confessed to the crime.

The suspect was said to have told the police that the spirit of his nephew was haunting and threatening him to confess or he would not have his peace.

“We killed him for rituals to make money,” he was said to have told the police.

According to the police, Godfred, in his account, said he needed some money to enable him to process his documents to travel abroad.

He, therefore, agreed with his brother, Samuel, to perform some rituals that required a human head and blood.

The suspect told the police that he invited his nephew, a second-year student of Victorkrom Junior High School, into his room, held him down and slaughtered him about 1:30 a.m.

After the killing, Godfred, at daybreak, went to tell his elder brother, who is the victim’s father, that his son was dead.

When the father requested to know what had happened to his son, Godfred told him that he and his other brother, Samuel, went for their usual ‘galamsey’ business with Atitso, but the victim fell on a rock and died.

Asked by the father about the whereabouts of the body of his son, the suspects said it was in their room.

The police were informed and upon entering the room, they saw the headless body of Atitso with the head placed in a bucket beside it.

Meanwhile, the body of the deceased has been transported to the Sefwi Wiaso Government Hospital mortuary for autopsy.

By Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu/Daily Graphic/Ghana