The discovery of the body of a 30-year-old woman at Akyem Aboabo and six human skulls in the bush at Akyem Oda has created fear and panic in the Birim South District of the Eastern region. The discovery has resulted in wide rumours in the area that some people are killing innocent persons for ritual purposes. The Oda Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Ben Atadana, however, discounted claims of the emergence of ritual murders in the district and cautioned people in the area not to take the law into their own hands by lynching innocent people. He stated that some people had set an agenda to create insecurity and panic in the area, a situation which had seriously affected social and economic activities. According to Chief Supt Atadana, a medical report on the death of Madam Yaa Afrakoma, whose body was found in a fish pond at Aboabo New Town on March 29, this year, revealed that she died from asphyxia due to drowning but not through any foul means. He said Mr S.S Adofo, a farmer, found the human skulls concealed in a fertilizer sack on his farm near the Oda Pentecost Primary School, not far from the Oda-Agona Swedru main road, on February 26, this year. The Divisional Police Commander said he suspected that the skulls might have been dug by grave diggers. He therefore, asked chiefs and assembly members in the district to inspect the graves in their communities to see whether any of them had been tampered with and report to the police for investigations. Chief Supt Atadana also urged them to be vigilant and keep watch over their cemeteries, especially at night, in order to apprehend grave looters and hand them over to the police for the necessary action to be served as a deterrent to such criminals in society. He said his outfit had also decided to put in place police patrol teams in plain clothes in dark corners and graveyards to check such criminal activities. Chief Supt Atadana also advised people whose relatives were missing to report the matter to the police immediately for investigations. He stressed that the public should co-operate with the police by volunteering information on any criminal activity in the area in order to defuse unnecessary tension and false rumours leading to mob attacks on innocent people. According to the divisional commander, after the Suhum riots, the same rumours of ritual murders were peddled at Asamankese and New Abirem but when the police conducted prompt and extensive investigations into these rumours, they were found to be false. “Under no circumstances should people attack, wound or lynch a suspect,” he warned. Credit: Daily Graphic