Court sentences man to death for murder

Tamale, Aug 1, GNA- A Tamale High Court on Thursday sentenced Laawaram Ngaaba, a 28-year-old farmer, to death for conspiring with his father to murder a woman they accused of being a witch at Bonbonayili village near Yendi in the Northern Region.

His father, Kwabena Woyom who was charged with conspiracy to murder, was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The seven-member jury found Ngaaba guilty of conspiracy to murder and murdering Pigle Maakum a housewife while the jury found the father Woyom, guilty of conspiracy to murder. The two had earlier pleaded not guilty.

Prosecuting, Mr Rexford Anthony Wiredu, a Senior State Attorney, told the court presided over by Mr Justice Victor Doegah, Supervising High Court Judge that on April 28, 2001, Woyom's sick wife told him that she dreamt and saw the deceased bewitching her.

Woyom informed his three children about what his wife had told him and the children armed themselves with sticks and marched to Maakum's house. The children ordered the deceased to leave the town but her husband pleaded with them to allow him to report the matter to the chief of the village.

The children obliged and reported the matter to the chief who summoned the deceased and her husband to his palace.

At the palace the deceased denied being a witch and also refused to go into a shrine to prove her innocence.

The prosecutor said the chief told the husband to take his wife away from the village for safety since he was travelling to Koforidua in the Eastern Region and promised to resolve the problem on his return. Mr Wiredu said the accused persons taking advantage of the chief's absence went to the deceased's house when her husband had left for the farm.

They dragged her out of the house to the outskirts of the village and beat her to death with sticks.

A report was made to the Yendi Police who arrested Woyom and Ngaaba while the others escaped, the prosecutor said.

Passing judgment, Mr Justice Doegah warned people in the region to stop accusing innocent women as witches and murdering them.

He said the court would not spare anybody caught taking the law into his or her own hands and meting out instant justice to people, especially women they perceive as witches.