Man shoots cousins for calling his mother a witch
The pain of seeing his mother being branded as a witch by his three cousins has landed a former assembly member of the Dipa Electoral Area in Bimbilla in the Northern Region in trouble.
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The Assembly Member, Ndoyela Magmaze Orbert, who could not stand the accusation being leveled against his mother, brought out a single barrel gun from his room and shot at his cousins, killing two, one on the spot, while the other died later on arrival at the hospital. The third person survived.
The incident happened at Bimbilla on January 15, 2014 but Orbert, who has been in police custody ever since after many appearances before a magistrate court, has now been charged with murder by the law office for the case to be transferred to a High Court in Tamale for trial to begin.
The Bimbilla District Police Commander, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Mr Steven Abanga, who disclosed this to The Mirror, said on the fateful day, Orbert was in his room when he was called out by his cousins.
They confronted him with the accusation that his mother was a witch and had used her witchcraft to make them poor in life.
Orbert, who could not entertain such accusations, entered his room and pulled the gun and shot at his mother’s accusers.
ASP Abanga said Orbert tried to flee but was arrested by members of his community and later handed over to the police.
Background
Accusations of witchcraft leveled against elderly women are widespread in the Northern Region.This had led many accused women being banished from their communities to various witches camps across the region.
Though efforts are being made to disband witches camps and integrate the alleged witches into their communities, the victims still faced the issue of stigmatisation.
In December last year, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, with its partners, closed down a camp at Bonyase in the Central Gonja District in the Northern Region as part of efforts to disband the camps in the region but the issue still persists.
Though the ministry succeeded in closing down the Bonyase witches camp and assisted the inmates to reintegrate into their communities, there are five other witches camps across the Northern Region.
The oldest, the Gambaga witches camp in the East Mamprusi District, is said to have been in existence for about a century.
The other camps are at Gyani, Noobuli, Kukuo and Kpatinga.
