Human Parts For Sale - Four Arrested

Ghana Telescope
New York - Accra - London


Four persons, including a 23-year-old woman, were last Sunday arrested by the Half-Assini Police for allegedly attempting to sell human parts to the priest of a reputed shrine in the Jomoro District in the Western Region.

The suspects — Juliet Nyamekeh, Charles Kweku, 30; Ebenezer Osei Yaw, 26, and Kwasi Dickson, 26, were said to have initially offered the parts, comprising two hands, two legs, a head and a waist, for GH¢100,000 but they later settled for GH¢60,000.

The victim is said to have been killed in the Eastern Region, from where the body was transported to the Western Region for sale.

Luck, however, eluded the suspects when the fetish priest, who had feigned interest in the transaction, tipped the police off, leading to their arrest.

The scene of the arrest is said to have been turned into a display of spiritual powers as the leader of the suspects, on seeing the police, started some incantations, ostensibly to facilitate their disappearance.

According to the Jomoro District Police Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) John F. Dzineku, the human parts were packed in a bag, with the hands and the legs tied together, while the head and the waist were separated from the remaining parts.

He told the Daily Graphic that it was clear from interrogations so far carried out that the suspects knew the victim whose body parts they were offering for sale.

The district commander said the lady among the suspects told the police that although she was not among those who killed the victim, she had been asked to look for a buyer for the human parts.

According to the commander, Juliet had told the police that knowing very well that human parts were sometimes needed for ritual purposes, she had contacted the priest if he could buy the parts for ritual.

Mr Dzineku said the suspects were being prepared for court, while the body parts of the unidentified victim have been deposited at the Half-Assini Government Hospital.