Farmer Jailed 10 Years For Attempting To Sacrifice Son For Money Ritual

A 38 year old farmer and also resident of the Ayisakro, a community near Axim in the Nzema East Municipality of the Western Region, has been sentenced to ten years in the prison for attempting to sacrifice his son for Money ritual. Kwabena Ebo was charged for trading of person contrary to sections 2(1) & (2) of the Human Trafficking

Act 694 of 2001. The accused also pleaded guilty to the charge and then asked the court to be lenient with him. Reading the sentence at the Takoradi Circuit Court B, Her Lordship Abigail Anima Asare indicated that the accused was guilty of the charges preferred against him and as such, deserves a stiffer punishment to also serve as a

deterrent to others. The prosecutor, Inspector Mr Robert Yawson, told the court that the accused on Thursday, the March 3 offered to sell his 16 year old biological son (name withheld) to one Francis Odasani, who is popularly known as Nana Tano Kwaw, a renown fetish priest in the area for an amount of GH¢500,000. The fetish priest told

the media after the sentence that he was pleased with the court for the punishment. I think it is also a good punishment. I saw how remorseful the accused was in the courtroom but nothing could have saved him at that particular moment. He will also learn his lessons next time, he indicated.

Facts of the case

The accused approached the fetish priest and requested him to use his son for rituals for him to get money. The fetish priest declined but the accused returned the same day in the afternoon around 1;00 pm pestering him to buy his son for an amount of GH¢500,000. Seeing how desperate and also determined the accused was, the

spiritualist feigned interest and promised to get him people who could buy so he should go and bring the son. The fetish priest informed the Axim Police Command and the accused was arrested when he had bargained with the plain-clothed policemen and had taken an envelope that was supposed to contain the amount at

the residence of the fetish priest where they had all met. The son in question is the eldest of three children the accused had with her former late wife. The son together with his two other siblings have since been living with their grandmother at Akyerɛso, a village near Akim Oda in the Eastern Region. The son has become a school

dropout because of financial challenges. The accused, therefore, took advantage of this, and knowing his plan, got permission from the grandmother and brought down the son to Ayesakro to accomplish his mission. The son has since also been sent back to his grandmother in the Eastern Region.