Techiman murder suspects remanded

Sunyani, June 2, GNA - The case of the four suspects who allegedly beheaded a 12-year old boy at Techiman for ritual purposes has been transferred from a circuit court to a magistrate court in Sunyani. The police were compelled to arraign the suspects before the circuit court in Sunyani on May 16 this year because all the magistrate courts were not in session and the suspects who were in police custody were not to be held there for more than 48 hours. The plea of the suspects; Sumalia Yahaya, 32, Kwasi Kuma, 45, Yaw Fosu= , 28 and Mallam Issah Bamba, a spiritualist, on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit crime and abetment of crime, were not taken by the court presided by Madam Janet Awo Bakudie.

They were remanded into prison custody to reappear on June 14, 2011. It would be recalled that Sumaila was arrested by the police with the boy's head at the residence of a spiritualist in Techiman. The spiritualist had alerted the police. Kuma and Fosu who were on the run were also arrested later from their hide outs by the police to assist in investigations. The police later arrested the spiritualist to assist in investigations. Sumaila initially told the Police that he got the human head from a corpse that had been buried at Kunsu, a farming community in Kintampo North Municipality. But investigations conducted by the Police however revealed that no child of that age had been dead and buried recently in that town. The police investigative team led by Superintendent Edmund Owusu Boampong, Kintampo Municipal Police Commander, later found the decomposed torso of the boy covered with leaves at a village in Atebubu=96Amantin District in the region. It was handed over to the family for burial in view of its state.