The Director-General of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), DCOP Frank Adu Poku, has indicated that media reports about two young men, Kwame Tetteh and Kofi Adjei, turning into snakes are false and called on the public not to panic. The Director-General was addressing the press concerning the arrest of one Mallam Fatau, 31, and investigations into his claims that the two snakes were among four young men that went to the shrine of one Nana Ogya at Aburi New Town for ritual money. The CID boss indicated that the story was a ploy to create panic among the public. According to him, investigations so far proved that there was no suburb in Aburi called Aburi New Town; neither did any fetish priest exist in Aburi by name Nana Ogya. “The police went to Aburi and contacted some people, including the chief of Aburi and the chief fetish priest. They realized there was no fetish priest by name Nana Ogya whom people have come to consult for rituals, and there was no place called Aburi New Town”. Further investigations at Sakyikrom revealed that Filco and Yaw Goro, who were reportedly stricken with numbness until they were allegedly healed by Mallam Fatau, were farm labourers for one Joe Tapolie, a native of Sakyikrom. Police gathered that the boys trapped the two snakes on their farm in July. They brought the two reptiles, with the longer one dead, to the Sakyikrom taxi rank where they displayed them to the public. When the two were quizzed about what they intended to use the reptiles for, they indicated they were going to sell them to some Chinese road contractors at Nsawam. The chief of Sakyikrom said, to his amazement, he saw the pictures of the two boys on different calendars indicating they went for ritual money, and in the process had turned deaf and dump. Currently Filco and Goro are said to have fled for an unknown destination. The police have assured the public that they are making strenuous efforts to smoke them out of their hideout to assist with investigations. The two snakes, according to the Director-General, were still lying in a small box in the consulting room of the suspect at Ablekuma but would be brought to the police station whenever need be. Mallam Fatau has since not been able to produce the supposed relatives of the two boys and the reptiles or their address and telephone numbers. DCOP Adu Poku observed that, “The story was a calculated attempt to create panic and unnecessary anxiety in the country”. He stressed that, “No human beings were turned into snakes”. Meanwhile Mallam Fatau, who is now in the custody of the Commercial Crime Unit, stood his grounds that the snakes were indeed brought to him by persons who claimed they were humans turned into snakes by Nana Ogya. The police boss has also issued a directive that all calendars showing pictures of the supposed snakes, as well as the Mallam and two survivors, should be retrieved from the public domain. He further stressed that persons caught selling such calendars would be arrested and prosecuted. Source: Daily Guide/Ghana