Court remands fetish priest for child stealing

Bibiani (W/R), July 22, GNA – A 25-year old fetish priest who allegedly tricked a couple at Sefwi-Apentemadi near Juaboso and stole their baby girl was on Thursday remanded into prison custody by the Bibiani Circuit Court.

Ama Bennie faces additional charge of practicing medicine without authority in contravention of the Pharmacy and Drug Act of 1961.

Standing trial with the priest for abetment of crime is Ama Ataa, his mother.

They both denied the charges and would re-appear on July 29.

Police Detective Chief Inspector Alex Asamoah told the court presided over by Justice Emmanuel Ankamah that Bennie is a male but claims to have been transformed into a female by his fetish.

He has been holding and carrying himself as a woman and even bears a female name.

The complainant, Ama Agyeiwaa, a petty trader and mother of two, lives with the husband, Kwame Elluo, at Sefwi-Boinzan near Juaboso.

Sometime in June, 2010, Bennie approached the woman, then carrying a seven-month pregnancy and told her that the unborn baby was not a human being.

He, however, promised that he would use his magical powers to assist her with spiritual protection.

The prosecution said when Agyeiwaa was about to give birth, Bennie, invited the couple to his shrine at Apentemadi.

The woman went into labour on August 16, at about 2300 hours, and the priest was on hand to aid her to deliver the so-called mysterious creature in a bush about 70 metres away from the shrine. He would not allow the couple to catch a glimpse of it.

He told them that it was a python and that he was going to perform some esoteric rituals to return the mammal into a nearby stream.

Some days later, the priest proclaimed to people in the area that he had delivered of a baby girl.

Police Detective Chief Inspector Asamoah said when the couple heard of the news, it dawned on them that they had been fooled.

They therefore went to him, seized their child from the mother of the priest, who was nursing it and made a formal report to the police.

Bennie confessed hiding the baby in the bush and going for it after the parents had been deceived into believing his fairy tale, during police interrogation.