Eleven persons arrested for burning the home and other belongings of a 68-year-old woman accused of being a witch at Nakpali, in the Zabzugu District, have been granted bail.
The suspects were granted bail on Tuesday, May 4, 2021, after the intervention of the Overlord of Dagbon, Yaa Naa Mahama Abubakar II, who requested an out-of-court settlement.
Yaa Naa Mahama Abubakar II cautioned the youth “to desist from taking the laws into their own hands since things are not the same.”
He advised the youth that since “there are laws, if you have an issue with someone, you take the person to the appropriate place for redress. If you don’t, the laws will catch up with you and all the strength you exhibited will come to nothing. My plea to the youth is that you exercise patience.”
The District Police Commander of Yendi, Chief Superintendent Richardson Kumeku, said “so far, as the complainant is also in agreement for out of court settlement, we don’t have a problem. What we will do is that, with the suspects they have brought, we are going to take their statements. Then we will bail them to sureties to go and settle.”
The spokesperson of the victim’s family, Abdulai M. Saani expressed satisfaction “with the way the problem has been solved. Whatever the Overlord says, that is what we are following. So on behalf of the elders and everybody, we are all satisfied with the way the problem is being solved,” he said.
Yakubu Ibrahim who spoke on behalf of the suspect applauded Yaa Naa for his intervention to help settle the matter out of court.
He added that “after the incident happened, we realized that [we had made a] mistake. The youth met and decided to express our sincere apologies to them [the family and community]. We pleaded for forgiveness. The Overlord cautioned us to be of good behaviour and be law-abiding.”
On Tuesday, April 20, 2021, some irate youth of Nakpali in the Zabzugu District of the Northern Region destroyed the property of a 68-year-old woman they accused of being a witch.
The youth destroyed the home of Amina Mahama, whom they accused of causing a baobab tree to fall and kill a young man in the town.
Reports indicate that, a few days before the attack, some youth were sleeping under a Baobab tree in the town because the weather was warm.
At about 9 pm, the baobab tree allegedly fell on them, killing one person instantly and injuring two others, an incident they blamed on the 68-year-old woman.
Source:Fiilafmonline/CitiNews
