Parents granted bail for violating children's rights

Koforidua, Feb. 19, GNA - The father and grandparents of two girls who conspired with a fetish priest to subject the minors to trial by ordeal for suspected witchcraft, were on Thursday granted five-million-cedi bail each by a circuit court in Koforidua.

Atiso Agboka, father of the girls, aged three and five, Kwaku Agboka and his wife Akua Agboka, grandparents and Kwame Donkor, a fetish priest, all pleaded not guilty to charges of exposing children to harm and will reappear on February 23.

A fifth accomplice, Opanyin Soldier, is now at large. Prosecuting, Chief Superintendent Elizabeth Allandu of the Women and Juvenile Unit (WAJU), of the Ghana Police Service told the court that Atiso, whose marriage "fell on rocks" took custody of the two girls, both offsprings of the broken marriage and sent them to stay with his parents at Ayeh-Nkwanta near Kukurantumi.

She told the court, presided over by Mr G.K. Ayimah that, in October 2002, the girls fell ill and were hallucinating under feverish conditions during which the grand parents, Kwaku Agboka and Akua suspected them to be under the spell of some evil spirits.

The grandparents took the minors to Donkor's shrine in the same village, who branded the girls as witches and made them to go through a trial by ordeal during which the victims allegedly confessed to being witches and were responsible for their grandfather's drunkenness as well as a relative's blockheadedness.

She said the children were also alleged to have confessed that they had captured a number of persons in the family who were ready to be killed.

The children, who spoke in Ewe, were forced to make their alleged confessions in the public while the fifth suspect, Opanyin Soldier, was interpreting in Twi as well as recording the confessions on tape, the prosecution said.

Supt. Allandu said the fetish priest then performed some rituals on the victims and later released them to their father and the grandparents, adding that as a result of their alleged confessions, the victims were being called all sorts of names in the village. Both children and adults shunned the girls' company, while the grandparents also maltreated them.

She said the maternal grandmother who heard of the children's ordeal informed the ARK Foundation, an NGO, who in turn made a complaint to the WAJU and the four accused persons were arrested. The prosecution said upon interrogation the accused persons claimed that the victims truly confessed to be witches.

At their first appearance last week, the prosecution pleaded with the court to remand all four accused persons, as the victims could not be traced.

Meanwhile, the little girls who were later traced were being kept at the ARK Foundation's Shelter Home at New Tafo, while investigations continue.