The lifeless body of a three-year-old girl has been discovered after she had gone missing for three days at Dagombaline, within the Asokore Mampong Municipality of the Ashanti Region.
The victim, Taslima Labaran, was found with her tongue missing.
According to reports, children playing football in the area stumbled upon the body while retrieving their ball from a building housing police officers.
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The deceased was found on the top floor of the building, currently undergoing renovation after a fire outbreak.
Labaran, a twin, had been missing since Thursday despite her mother’s efforts, including lodging an official complaint with the police.
The grieving mother, Rukaya Muntari, recounted her last moments with her missing daughter, expressing her frustration over the unsuccessful search efforts.
The body has since been conveyed to the morgue for preservation pending autopsy.
Police have commenced an investigation into the matter.
Sympathizers, including playmates, had thronged the victim’s home to commiserate with the family.
The incident has struck fear among villagers who claimed that the young girl was killed for ritual purposes.
There have been several reported cases of ritual murder across the country, with The Ghana Report counting at least five known ones since April 2021.
The Kasoa ritual murder
A 10-year-old boy, Ishmael Mensah Abdallah, was murdered in cold blood for ritual purposes on April 3.
Felix Nyarko, aka Yaw Anane, 16, a mason labourer, who is the first accused, and Nicholas Kini Kwame, 18, a student and second accused, lured Abdallah into an uncompleted building and killed him with a club and a cement block.
According to the police, a fetish priestess had demanded body parts from the two in addition to GH₵5,000 to perform money rituals to make them wealthy.
Ritual Murder: Couple Arrested For Burying Two-Year-Old Son
The police in the Central Region arrested a couple for burying their two-year-old son alive at Asikuma Odobeng Brakwa.
According to the police, Paul Adobaw and his wife, Yaa Atta, acted on the instructions of a fetish priestess to bury the boy who could not walk nor speak since childbirth.
The self-styled prophetess, Ama Nkansah, had told the suspects that the baby was a spirit child from a river, and if they did not return the baby to the river gods, the couple would continue giving birth to such babies.
The couple and the prophetess took the baby to the backyard of a tenant near a stream called Gyankobeng. At about 12:20 am on May 27, they dug a grave, performed rituals on the child, and buried him alive.
A tenant, Abubakari Mohammed, who saw the three in the act, lodged a report at the Brakwa Police Station on the same day at about 3:30 am.
Fashion Designer ritual murder
Police in Sunyani arrested a 23-year-old fashion designer, Benjamin Adjei, for attempting to sacrifice his 13-year-old nephew for money rituals on May 15.
He lured the victim into a taxi to convey him to the venue for the rituals. The police who had laid ambush at the Abesim-Tano police barrier on the Sunyani-Kumasi highway busted him on their way to the shrine.
A handbag containing one cutlass, a knife, red calico, one-pot, some cola nuts, cowries, and a cash sum of GH₵ 300.00 were recovered from him.
Three Arrested For Beheading 12-Year-Old Boy
Th.ree people were also arrested in connection with the gruesome murder of a 12-year-old boy, Cornelius Eboe Negble, at a shrine at Ndogokope, near Tadzewu, in the Volta Region.
The three, Senanu Ashitor Atsikpo, 28; Kudzo Akpatsu, 49; and Etse Louis, 25, kidnapped the victim from his hometown at Nornyikpo, near Ziope, during a funeral on May 20.
They took him to a shrine and killed him for money rituals.
Rashid Ibrahim Arrested For Beheading Bolt Driver
In Rashid Ibrahim’s case, the 32-year-old killed Israel Agyei Manu, a 33-year-old headteacher of Atonsu-based Rogel Montesorri Basic School.
Police in the Ashanti Region picked up Rashid Ibrahim on Sunday, July 4, indicating that the suspect, who was motivated by riches, had confessed to the crime.
He had been promised wealth by some people who instructed him to get a human head for sacrifices.