The fetish priest and owner of the shrine where the police retrieved a decomposing human head in a black polythene bag last week has handed himself over to the Amasaman police.
The fetish priest, who identified himself as Madawor Gbedze,45, denied claims that he bolted when the police raided his shrine and stated that he was rather sleeping soundly in his room.
After reporting to the police in the company of his lawyer, whose name has been withheld by the police, Madawor Gbedze is said to have told the police that he had no knowledge of the human head that was found in his shrine.
He also claimed he was not aware that a raid had been carried out in his shrine on the morning that four suspects were arrested because he was in his house, which is close to the shrine.
The police have since February 1, 2018, mounted a manhunt for Madawor who is alleged to be performing rituals, especially money doubling rituals, for patrons of his shrine.
Court
After taking down his statement, the police arrested him and put him and the four suspects who were arrested earlier before the Amasaman Magistrate Court.
They were charged with provisional murder.
The Prosecutor, Superintendent Ernest Acheampong, narrated the facts of the case before the court, presided over by Ms Veronique Praba, who remanded all the five accused persons in prison custody.
They are to reappear before the court on February 19, 2018.
Fact
At about 11 a.m. on February 1, 2018, the Amasaman Divisional Police Command, acting on intelligence, went to Madawor’s shrine at Akatapo, a village near Amasaman in the Greater Accra Region, and arrested four men.
The police also retrieved an almost decomposed human head with a telephone number written on a piece of paper and tied around it in a black polythene bag that had been placed on an idol in the shrine.
Those arrested are Wortanu Selase, 19; Kwame Gbedze, 20; Anane Dunyo, 39, and Lawson Yaw, 52.
The four accused persons told the police during the interrogation that they had worked with the fetish priest for periods ranging between five and 20 years.
Gbedze claimed to be a son of the fetish priest, with Dunyo and Selase saying they were assistants at the shrine, while Yao claimed to have been working as a herbalist at the shrine for the past 20 years.
The police have deposited the decomposed human head at the morgue of the Police Hospital where the Autopsy Department will examine it and forward a report to the Greater Accra Regional Command for further investigations.
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