Alice Debrah, a secondhand clothes trader at the Kantamato Market in Accra, had been allegedly killed by a fetish priest who failed to perform money doubling rituals for her.
The fetish priest, Agbeko Acumalt, after killing Alice, allegedly buried the deceased in his shrine in an attempt to conceal the crime.
Unfortunately, the crime, like a cloak couldn’t be submerged under water, but was uncovered, and the alleged perpetrators arrested and charged before an Achimota District Court on Monday, May 15, 2023.
Agbeko was arraigned together with a taxi driver, Bless Fiawofie Kwablatsey, on the charges conspiracy to murder and murder offences before the District Court, presided over by His Worship Prince Osei Owusu.
The Magistrate Court has remanded the accused persons and adjourned the next hearing to May 29 for continuation of the committal trial to proceed.
The accused persons; pleas at this stage would not be taken, as committal proceedings were to establish whether sufficient evidence had been adduced against them.
Details of the case
The prosecuting officer, Chief Inspector Margaret Ofori Boadi, told the court that the complainant in the case was Emmanuel Adamptey, a teacher and nephew of the deceased.
She added that the fetish was a resident of Lente-Wati near Tokor in the Volta Region, while the second accused, Bless, lives at Kasoa-Amanfrom.
The deceased, until her demise, was a trader who deals in secondhand goods and was living at Kasoa-Kuwait together with the complainant.
According to her, during the month of November 2022, the deceased lost her goods to the Kantamanto market fire outbreak, and since then became financially unstable.
Therefore, in March 2023, the deceased discussed her financial issues with Bless, who offered to take her to a fetish priest, Agbeko, to perform some money doubling rituals for her.
Bless subsequently led the deceased to the shrine of Agbeko at Lente-Wuti as promised.
Agbeko and his accomplice, one Selasie, currently at large, upon listening to the deceased’s ordeals, gave her an assurance that they could perform a ritual for her to get multiple folds of any amount of money she brings to them.
Agbeko and his accomplice then gave the deceased a long list of items to be purchased for the said ritual, but the latter could not afford it, and therefore requested to return to Accra to reorganise herself.
However, after the deceased and Bless returned to Accra, she started dealing constantly with the fetish priest in regards to the money ritual.
The prosecutor said the constant communication was followed with the transfer of monies totaling about GH¢15,000.00 from the deceased to Agbeko and his accomplice.
Regrettably, the accused persons, after collecting the money, failed to double it for the deceased as promised.
The deceased was alarmed and became furious with Agbeko, demanded a refund of her money, and threatened to report him to her brother who is a soldier if they did not refund the money.
The court was told that Agbeko and his accomplices, for fear of being arrested by the deceased’s brother, planned to kill her to end the matter.
So, on March 25, 2023, at about 6:00pm, Agbeko called the deceased to come to his shrine at Lente-Wuti for her money, but warned her not to inform anybody about it.
The deceased embarked on the trip from Kasoa-Kuwait to Lente-Wuti the next day, March 26 at about 3:30am.
Agbeko and Salasie executed their plan by straggling her to death when she reached the shrine to collect her money.
It was narrated to the court that Agbeko and Salasie secretly burned the deceased inside the shrine.
On April 3, 2023, the family of the deceased lodged a missing person’s complaint to the police for investigation.
Two days after, April 5, investigations led to the arrest of Agbeko who vehemently denied knowing the whereabouts of the deceased.
On April 17, investigations also led to the arrest of Bless who also claimed he did not know the whereabouts of the deceased.
In the course of investigations, the police, upon intelligence, located the grave of the deceased in Agbeko’s shrine on April 19.
On April 20, the police secured an Exhumation Order from the Agbozume District Court which was executed on April 23, and the body of the deceased was found in a partially decomposed stated.
C/Ins Boadi added that the mortal remains of Alice were deposited at the Police Hospital Mortuary for preservation and autopsy, and on April 26, a post-mortem examination was conducted on the body.
She said the Police Hospital Pathologist, ACP/Dr. Owusu Afriyie, established the cause of death was as a result of asphyxiation, strangulation and blood loss from cubital fossa of the left arm.
The accused persons were, therefore, charged with the stated offences and arraigned before court.
C/Ins Boadi added that investigations were still ongoing for the arrest of the other culprit at large.
