Togbe Adesi II, the Ho-based spiritualist who knocked down four girls last Tuesday night, killing one of them instantly, has been granted a police inquiry bail. Togbe Adesi hit the girls with his Land Rover vehicle with registration number GT 5193-10 at a spot very close to the Volta Regional Police Headquarters, and was subsequently arrested. A royal African python and an egg, which were found in the juju man’s vehicle at the time of the accident and had been in police custody, were also released to the spiritualist. Eyewitnesses said upon his release, the spiritualist put the snake into the smock he was wearing and went back to his shrine with it. Togbe Adesi, it would be recalled, knocked down the girls who were returning from a National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) dress-making training program on that fateful Tuesday night, killing 15-year-old Enyonam Murray instantly, and injuring the other girls currently in critical condition at the Volta Regional Hospital. The three others were Micaul Agbalekpor, Mawunyo Bosu and Mary Anagbo. The popular juju man, according to police sources, fled the scene as soon as the incident occurred. Daily Guide gathered that he was arrested when he stormed the Regional Police Headquarters with two lawyers the following day. He was alleged to have told the police that he fled the scene of the accident out of fear for his life. A police source said he was charged for negligently causing harm, and may also be possibly charged for driving without a licence since he could not produce his drivers’ licence at the time of his arrest. A live royal African python known in Ewe as Togbi Dabi and an egg, found in the spare tyre compartment of the vehicle, was in police custody till Friday when it was released to its master. Togbe Adesi however told the police at the time of his release that the snake had no spiritual role in his shrine. According to him, he usually trained such snakes for tourists who usually bought them and sent them abroad. “When I catch the snake, I train it, and when they (tourists) come they pick it away,” he told the police last Friday. He said he kept the snake in the vehicle because his children would manhandle it if it was left at home. When the police asked him whether the snake would not die considering where it had been concealed, he answered in the negative, explaining that there was water by it. Togbe Adesi also said he did not deliberately run into the girls; but that the unfortunate incident occurred because he was dodging an oncoming vehicle. The royal African python, an elderly man told this paper, would not bite unless “it is sent to someone to do so”. He said under such circumstances, it would bite the one it was sent to, irrespective of where he was at the time, adding that unless God intervened, a bite from the harmless snake would automatically result in death. Some irate youth of the town, who earlier stormed the police station to kill the snake, were prevented from doing so. Source: Daily Guide