Grandma tortured and burned to death on suspicion of being a witch

A 72-year-old grandmother suffered one of the most barbaric of deaths when she was burnt alive by a mob at Tema Site 15 after being accused of being a witch.

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Five people who allegedly tortured and extracted the confessions of witchcraft from Ama Hemmah before drenching her in kerosene and setting her ablaze have been arrested by the Tema Police.

But the suspects, including an evangelist, denied the crime and claimed that they were rather praying to exorcise the evil spirit from the deceased, Ama, when the anointing oil they had applied to her body caught fire.

Just that, by "praying" they mean "throwing a lit match at her" and by "anointing oil" they mean "gasoline".

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Two of the suspects are Samuel Ghunney, a 50-year-old photographer, and Pastor Samuel Fletcher Sagoe, 55, the evangelist.

The rest are Emelia Opoku, 37; Nancy Nana Ama Akrofie, 46, and Mary Sagoe, 52, all unemployed.

Briefing the Daily Graphic on the incident, the Tema Regional Police Commander, Mr Augustine Gyening, Assistant Commissioner of Police, said about 10 a.m. on November 20, 2010, Samuel Fletcher Sagoe visited his sister (Emelia) at Site 15, a suburb of Tema Community 1, and saw Madam Hemmah sitting in Emelia's bedroom at a time Emelia had sent her children to school.

Mr Gyening said Samuel then raised an alarm, attracting the attention of the principal suspect, Samuel Ghunney, and some people in the neighbourhood.

According to him, the suspects claimed that Madam Hemmah was a known witch in the area and subjected her to severe torture, compelling her to confess to being a witch.

He said after extracting the confession from Madam Hemmah, Ghunney asked Emelia for a gallon of kerosene and with the help of his accomplices, poured it all over the woman and set her ablaze.

A student nurse tried to save the woman, but she died of her injuries.

This is just horrible and brutal, and sounds like something out of the Salem Witch Trials.

This is terrible.

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But the suspects, including an evangelist, denied the crime and claimed that they were rather praying to exorcise the evil spirit from the deceased, Ama, when the anointing oil they had applied to her body caught fire.

People laugh at me and call me paranoid when I say pagans are still persecuted by Christians. Granted, this is Africa and not America, and there's absolutely no evidence this poor, poor woman was of any faith or particular religious beliefs. And god dammit, people will say anything you want under torture! Torturing someone until they say anything is not proof of supposed demonic possession, witchcraft, or any CRIME period!

Fanaticism of any kind is bad, m'kay?

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And god dammit, people will say anything you want under torture! Torturing someone until they say anything is not proof of supposed demonic possession, witchcraft, or any CRIME period!

Contrary to popular belief, most torturers know this. Torture is more about spreading your own version of the truth than it is getting objective truth.

Alhazred wrote:

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And god dammit, people will say anything you want under torture! Torturing someone until they say anything is not proof of supposed demonic possession, witchcraft, or any CRIME period!

Contrary to popular belief, most torturers know this. Torture is more about spreading your own version of the truth than it is getting objective truth.

What about "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques?"

Okay, growing up a Pentecostal, my dad used to use 'anointing oil' when he prayed for someone who was sick. As near as I can recall, it was simply olive oil with some herbs added to it. I know most any oil will ignite given the proper temperature, but I suspect you'd have to be using a helluva lot of 'anointing oil' to manage to set someone on fire and burn them to death. I have no memory of anyone my father 'anointed' catching on fire.

Unfortunately, belief in such things as 'witch craft' and black magic' are still quite common in third world countries. I'd be interested in know what church the 'Evangelist' was affiliated with, because 'Evangelist' is a general term for someone who spreads the gospel of a particular religion. It's not something you have to have a license to do; anyone can style themselves as an Evangelist, including people who've never been within 2000 miles of a Bible School or Seminary. You can be an 'Evangelist' for your own, home-grown religion, which I suspect is what's going on here, since I don't know of any religions who still consider witchcraft to be a burning offense. Even the Pentecostal Church acknowledges Wicca as being a religious belief; albeit, one they don't agree with. But they certainly don't encourage people to go out and burn the followers any more than they encourage them going out and burning Jehovah Witnesses or Seventh Day Adventists.