Police in the Savannah Region are seeking to arrest persons who looked on as Akua Denteh, a 90-year-old woman accused of witchcraft was lynched in Kafaba.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, DCOP Enoch Adu Twum Bediako, the Savannah Regional Police Commander, said an example needed to be set after the harrowing incident of mob justice captured on camera.
“If the public will help us to arrest any of the onlookers, we will be very grateful to arrest them to serve as a deterrent for people who just look on criminally,” he said.
DCOP Bediako’s call will be received warmly by OccupyGhana, which called for the arrest and prosecution of all persons who gathered and looked on as the 90-year-old was killed.
OccupyGhana held that the onlookers were guilty of misdemeanour because they looked on without offering any help.
DCOP Bediako offered a similar assessment of their conduct.
“We can charge you for abetment because being there and looking at the crime, you were giving encouragement to the wrongdoers to continue to do [what they were doing],” he said.
They could have prevented the lynching “but failed to do so,” DCOP Bediako added.
Aside from the onlookers, he said all the principal suspects in the lynching have been arrested.
![Sherina Mohammed](https://citinewsroom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Hajia-Sirina.jpeg)
The latest was 40-year-old Sherina Mohammed, who is said to have led the lynching.
Sherina Mohammed has admitted to being the woman in the viral video, but denied she led the lynching.
She will be arraigned later on Wednesday at the Bole district court.
She joins six others who have already arraigned and charged with conspiracy to commit murder.