Housewife Murdered Over Witchcraft


Naanpaak Laar(left) and Maten Jabong
Duukwaak Laar, a 55-year-old housewife, has allegedly been murdered and hanged at Chintilune, a farming community near Bunkpurugu in the Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo district of the Northern Region, on suspicion that she was a witch.

Police in the area, who recovered the body from a shea tree, spotted some marks on her chest, suggesting that she might have been brutally assaulted by her assailants before she was hanged.

Two persons – Maten Jabong, a 24-year-old student and  Naanpaak Laar, a 44-year-old farmer and stepson of the deceased – have since been arrested for their purported roles in the incident.

Maten Jabong was reported to have disclosed to Naanpaak Laar that he constantly saw the deceased chasing him (Jabong) and threatening to kill him in his dreams, indicating that this had gone on for several nights and therefore decided to seek his (Laar’s) advice on the matter.

Both allegedly concluded that the old lady was a witch and so they delegated someone to inform her relations about it, who advised the two men to take her to a witchdoctor to be exorcized.

Late Duukwaak Laar
A day later, the second accused person claimed he was going to ease himself when he was said to have spotted the deceased hanging on a tree in a nearby bush and informed the relatives through someone.

Family members of the poor woman rushed to the scene and confirmed what they had indeed been told but suspected foul play in Duukwaak Laar’s death, based on a chronology of events days earlier, and lodged a complaint with the police who visited the scene of the crime.

The two men were therefore arrested, but in their caution statements they denied knowledge of the woman’s death.

Both have since been charged with conspiracy and murder and have been remanded into prison custody by a Nalerigu District Magistrate Court to reappear at a later date.

The body of the deceased has since been released to the family for burial.

From Stephen Zoure, Tamale
 
 
 
 
 

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