Two fetish priests are in the custody of the police for allegedly killing a biochemist consultant and siphoning what is suspected to be his blood into a gallon.
The deceased Edward Quartey-Papafio, 64, had left his house on January 15, 2020, at about 3:30 am after receiving a phone call.
According to the Director-General of the CID, COP Isaac Yeboah, after police investigations, it was discovered that the deceased was last spotted in Adeisu, near Nsawam in the Eastern region.
The police intensified investigation, and on April 21, 2020, they arrested suspects Christian Gameli Lawerh alias Power, 36, and Famous Adorkunu alias Scorpion, 37.
Both fetish priests hail from the Volta region but reside at Maame Dede near Adeisu.
After a search was conducted at their residences, police retrieved two pump action guns, a single barrel gun, together with eleven packets of cartridges from Lawerh’s room.
On April 29, both suspects admitted having interacted with the missing person for some time, but he was later shot and killed on January 15, 2020, at their shrine.
The suspects reiterated that the deceased was buried at a particular spot within the shrine and led police to the scene. The area was secured for an exhumation order to be granted by the court.
On April 30, the police including pathologists and other forensic experts went to Maame Dede and executed the exhumation.
The pathologists retrieved the decomposed body from a grave.
A second decomposed body whose name the suspect Gameli gave as Kwesi Zomelo also from Kasoa was retrieved from a separate grave.
The team later exhumed human parts, hair attachments, bead (belonging to a woman, police suspect), and bones from a third grave within the same perimeter.
A decomposed human flesh with bones wrapped in a cloth buried among the bodies was also retrieved from another grave. The team, in addition, retrieved human skulls together with bones, suspected to be human, hidden under two ‘idols’ in the house.
Investigations have so far established that on December 2019, the two conspired to murder Edward Quartey-Papafio, according to police.
They are alleged to have lured the deceased to their shrine and succeeded in collecting cash amounting to 10,000 Ghana cedis from him with a promise to fortify the deceased spiritually to enable his company to flourish.
On January 15, they invited Quartey-Papafio to the shrine for what they claimed to be the final purification rites but in the process they shot, killed, and buried his body.
Police say after committing the crime, Lawerh took possession of the deceased’s Itel and Nokia mobile phones and handed them to his third wife, together with a bunch of keys.
Police say the second suspect Adorkunu, has confessed that he shot and killed Mr. Quartey-Papafio.
He also confessed to killing Zomelo and one of his masons after the deceased demanded money owed him.
According to COP Isaac Ken Yeboah, the remains exhumed from the shrine have been deposited at the Police Hospital Mortuary awaiting DNA testing and identification.
The suspects have been remanded and are awaiting trial.
Source: TheBBCghana.Com
