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Sosu welcomes 12-year sentence handed Akua Denteh’s killers

Human rights activist and Member of Parliament for Madina, Francis-Xavier Sosu, has welcomed the decision by a Tamale High Court to sentence the two persons accused of killing a 90-year-old woman, Akua Denteh, in 2020.

The 90-year-old woman was lynched over allegations of witchcraft, leading to her death.

Police in the Savannah Region arrested seven people, including the chief of the Kafaba community.

The suspects, Hajia Serena Mohammed and Latifa Bomaye, were handed a 12-year prison sentence by the Tamale High Court on Tuesday, July 4, after a three-year court trial.

In an interview with Citi News, Francis-Xavier Sosu said, “This is welcome news because for far too long, we have had many people who have perpetrated this level of injustice and criminality against other people, under the pretext of either exorcising them or dealing with witchcraft. Although they were charged with murder, they were convicted of manslaughter. We can safely say that the twelve years may serve as a good deterrent to others who may be in that space.”

“We thought that the case was a clear-cut murder case, but of course, if the court is of the view that it’s manslaughter, we will accept the verdict. Otherwise, we were pushing for a life sentence for them on account of what they did to the poor old lady.”

He said Parliament will soon push for the passage of the Anti-Witchcraft Accusation Bill to expedite the process of dealing with such cases.

“The reason why we are pushing Parliament now to pass this Anti-Witchcraft Accusation Bill is that if there is no accusation, then all the other subsequent events, activities, or harm will not even occur in the first place. However, because of the persistence of these witchcraft accusations, people may be labelled as witches and dealt with in a way that eventually causes harm to them.”

“If we are successful with this Bill, it will remove the source of all of these accusations. We will no longer have situations where someone mistreats another person and, in the end, causes harm or death in the manner in which they did this,” Mr. Sosu said.

Source:Fiilafmonline/CitiNews

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