Atta Akyea fingers police in Akooko clash

The Member of Parliament for Akyem Abuakwa South in the Eastern region is accusing police at Suhum of being behind the violence that occurred in Akyem Akooko yesterday.
Two people were killed and over eight others injured in a bloody protest after some residents embarked on a demonstration Tuesday to register their displeasure over the presence of a fetish priest in the area.
They claimed the fetish priest, Nana Saka, has been engaging in rituals popularly known as sakawa using human sacrifice.
The house, car and other properties of the fetish priest were set ablaze by angry residents. About 15 residents have been arrested and are assisting police in their investigations.
But the MP for the area, Samuel Atta Akyea said the violence occurred because the Police in Suhum have been compromised by the fetish priest.
He is angry that the residents have been refused bail whilst the fetish priest whom he accused of shooting one of the protesters is walking free.
“A sense of unfairness is being played out there,” he told Evans Mensah on Joy FM Newsnite Wednesday. This, he said, has brought some level of uneasiness to the area.
Initial report suggested that residents who were killed were shot by followers of the fetish priest, but Mr. Atta Akyea said one of them was actually shot and killed by the police.
The man was actually standing about 500 meters away from where the demonstrators clashed with the fetish priest when a stray live bullet fired by the police to disperse the crowd hit him.
Giving his account of what triggered the fatal confrontation, the MP said some residents had confronted Nana Saka after he defied an invitation by the chief of the town for parading his gods in the town.
Incensed by the actions of the residents, the fetish priest, he alleged, fired into the crowd, and a bullet hit a lady in the process. She is currently battling for her life in the hospital.
“It is most embarrassing to learn that the police at Suhum had given some help to the fetish priest, Saka, the man, who in my humble view is the cause of what has happened in the constituency.
“Even when he is doing his private fetish rituals he has police cover. The man is so powerful he can commandeer the police from Suhum to come and block the Accra-Kumasi Highway so that he will do his rituals in the middle of the road.”
Earlier today, the Eastern Region Minister Antwi Boasiako Sekyere paid a visit to the place and directed police reinforcement.
Giving his accounts of the event to the Minister, Chief of Akooko, Barima Bimpong Agyedua said he was alarmed when he got reports that the fetish priest was carrying coffins and his gods in town amidst drumming and firing of gunshots.
He said he sent his subjects to summon him to the palace, but the priest walking in the company of three police officers, refused to honour his invitation.
His people, the chief admitted had wanted to discipline the fetish priest for disrespecting him but he prevailed upon them only to hear later about the violent clash claiming the lives of two.
Meanwhile the family of Nana Saka have been telling Joy FM’s Eastern regional correspondent, Kofi Siaw that the fetish priest has never been involved in human rituals.
They described him as a good person with a clean heart.
 
Source – Ghanaweb