RITUAL KILLINGS AT TIMBER MARKET

Weeks of underground investigations by TODAY have uncovered mysterious killings at Timber Market, a suburb of Accra.

Hon. Cletus Avoka, Interior Minister

The killings in the locality, our scouts found out, had been occurring every two years, with the recent one taking place some weeks ago; when residents woke up to witness the dilapidated bodies of three people dumped in gutters at the Timber Market area.

TODAY’s investigation team discovered that two of the victims (all men) were porters at the Timber Market and another young man, who residents identified as a pupil of the Ayalolo Junior High School.

The spectacle, the paper garnered, has caused a lot of panic and fear amongst the inhabitants; and while some lamented over the mysterious deaths, others in a somber mood, wondered how the killing has over the last decade been a bi-yearly affair with nobody having a clue. Others were scared stiff as to who the next victim would be.

TODAY’s investigations discovered that a Ghanaian murderous cartel with connections in Nigeria, Benin and Ivory Coast were suspected to be behind the killings. They were believed to be using the human parts for ritual purposes.

Our investigations also revealed that the human parts come with fat financial remuneration with the human legs ranging between $21,000- $25,000, depending on the kind of activity it was meant for.

The human hand on the other hand, investigations established, is being sold between $45,000 and $50,000. The most expensive part of the body, TODAY’s team gathered is the human head and heart, which our investigative team learned cost between $1.5million – $ 2million.

According to the inhabitants, although the police had previously been informed about the mysterious killings, “nothing had been done about it.”

“Killing of people is nothing new at all, it happens every year; the perpetrators of these acts sell these human parts for huge sums of money to pursue their get-rich-quick agenda,” a resident who gave her name as Madam Mercy Ashley Okine, told the paper.

Although residents were tight-lipped on disclosing how many people have been killed this year, further inquiries by your ubiquitous TODAY can report that six people ranging between the ages of 13-29 have so far fallen prey to the activities of the killers.

The inhabitants who spoke to the paper decried the prevailing situation and charged the police to live up to their responsibilities.

Mrs Odoi Ayikwei, who has lived in the area for over a decade now, told our investigative team that not only are the activities of these people iniquitous, but an attempt to instill fear, and cause chaos into the indigenes and also an attempt to destabilize the rank and file of the community.

“If we are going to fold our arms and stay aloof while our own people are killed then my brothers, God bless us all,” she stressed.

According to Adam Fuseini, a watchman in the community, the killings was not too strange to him considering the fact that for about 14 days now in the late hours around 11:00p.m., he heard cries that sounded like somebody was being strangled.

He disclosed that on September 7, 2009, while he was going round his routine activities, he chanced upon a dilapidated human body, lying  in an abandoned well close to the schools KVIP with several bruises all over.

“I was taken aback when I saw that horrible picture with flies all over the body and emitting bad odour; I almost vomited; it was so disgusting,” he added.

He further added that if these ritual murders are not halted, they will become a norm in the area.

“People are becoming enraged by the seemingly unconcerned approach by the security agencies and would be motivated into doing things that won’t be in favour of the community at large,” he noted.

BY ATO KEELSON & KELVIN ADU-TWUM PEPRAH