Crime

2 more persons arrested in connection with murder of boy at Ndogokope

Two more suspects have been arrested in connection with last month’s gruesome murder of a 12-year-old boy whose body was found in a shrine at Ndogokope, near Tadzewu, in the Volta Region.  

They are Hunor Kofi Koko, 30, fetish priest, and owner of the shrine, and his younger brother, Anani Koko, 23.  

The suspects, who went into exile in Togo, days after the killing of the boy, were nabbed in Voga, near Lome, through the collaborative efforts of INTERPOL Togo and INTERPOL Ghana, on Saturday, and handed over to the Ghanaian authorities, on Tuesday.  

These arrests bring to five the number of people grabbed so far in connection with the suspected ritual murder.  

The District Police Commander of Kpetoe, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Benedicta Ansah, who disclosed these to the Ghanaian Times, here on Tuesday evening, said that the fetish priest and his brother were in police custody assisting in investigations into the matter.  

DSP Ansah said that investigations indicated the boy, Cornelius Eboe Negble, was lured from a funeral at his hometown, Nornyikpo, to a thick forest where his throat was split.  

He said body of Negble was tucked into a sack and transported on motorcycle with registration number, M-19-1348, by three of the suspects, through Wudzedeke, Keyime, Ziope and Ave-Dakpa to Ndonukorfe where the body was initially kept behind the back of the Agbavor Vudu shrine.  

During the journey under the cover of darkness, one of the suspects, only known as Moris, who is still at large, controlled the motorcycle, while Anani sat behind and Senanu Ashitor Atsikpo, who was arrested earlier, sat in the middle with the sack containing the body on his lap, DSP Ansah said.

DSP Ansah said later at the shrine,  Atsikpo removed the heart, kidneys, intestines, penis and testicles from the body, and gave them to fetish priest who kept the human parts in a pan for a ritual.  

According to the District Police Commander, investigations further found that the motive of the murder was to use the various body parts for a ritual to establish a new deity at the shrine.  

The police last month arrested Atsikpo, 28, Kudzo Akpatsu, 49, and Etse Louise, 25, in connection with the murder, and also found the sack containing the decapitated and maggot-infested body of the boy at the shrine.  

FROM ALBERTO MARIO NORETTI, KPETOE 

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