A 45-year-old unemployed woman who allegedly stole 20 pieces of ladies panties valued at GH¢120 at Tudu on the instructions of a fetish priest has appeared before the District Magistrate’s Court presided over by Mrs Eugenia Atta-Sonno. She pleaded guilty to stealing but the court discharged her in view of her peculiar circumstances. Inspector B. O. Yeboah told the court that Safula Mohammed, the complainant is a trader and sells ladies’ panties and blouses at the Aflao Station in Accra while the accused allegedly resides in Tamale in the Northern Region. He said about a week ago, the complainant detected the theft of a sack of ladies’ blouses valued at ¢10.8 million from a garage guarded by a watchman in he night. The complainant, therefore, engaged the services of a witness, Salema Mohammed, to watch the place during the day. According to the prosecutor, on August 14, 2007 at about 12 p.m., the witness was resting on a bench when she saw the accused stealing some of the ladies’ panties from the sack. The accused was arrested and sent to the Ministries Police Station where she admitted the offence. She said that she needed money urgently so she went to a shrine at Bolgatanga and was told by the fetish priest to travel to a distant place to steal and when she was caught, hooted at and disgraced in public, she would get money . Hence she travelled to Accra and stole the 20 pieces of ladies’ panties. The accused told the court that "I was working with a capital which kept depreciating without any cause. I consulted a friend who directed me to a fetish priest in Bolga who claimed that he would give me some medicine to bath with and also rub on my body." "He advised me that after using the medicine I should go to a destination of my choice, steal any item and make sure I was caught, hooted at and disgraced", she said. "I did as instructed and came to the Tudu area where I saw the panties in a sack. I waited till nobody was in sight and I brought the things out. A gentleman who first saw me with the items started beating me and others joined him in the process." The accused further told the court that anytime she narrated the case and her reason for stealing, a spirit entered her body and began working in her, thus the medicine never worked and as if to give credence to her story, the accused shivered violently when she was narrating the story to the court. Source: The Mirror