The recent news of the murders that have taken place in Wa and Mankessim, like those that have once flooded news headlines in Ghana before, have given rise to a lot of questions about the security situation in the country.Unsettled as they are, these cases have also brought to bear the fact that there have been quite too many instances like that where people have either died or been killed through mysterious means.

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In an attempt to chronicle some of the cases of murders (ritual murders) that have heralded news headlines in the country, particularly in 2022, GhanaWeb has put together this list of some of the most gruesome killings that happened in various parts of the country.Wa killings, Upper West:Residents of the Wa Municipality in the Upper West Region have been living in fear with a rising spate of murders targeting private security officers.

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The number of victims is inching towards a dozen, with the most recent having been discovered on Tuesday, September 20, 2022.In five months, ten lives have been lost in bizarre circumstances to 'serial killers' in the region.Last Friday, September 16, 2022, some residents showed up in their numbers at the Wa Technical Institute to protest the security situation there.

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Out of the ten people who have lost their lives, only three bodies have so far been found.The police have since ramped up efforts to arrest the situation and to assure the population of adequate security, with the Inspector-General of Police, COP Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, visiting the region.According to additional details, in the case of the latest victim, his eyes and tongue had been removed.

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The day after, Tuesday, September 19, another body was exhumed with his kidney, heart, and private parts missing.Bole, Savannah:In January 2022, the body of a middle-aged man was found in an uncompleted building at Mempeasem in Bole.On February 6, 2022, the decomposing body of a man was found in an uncompleted building.In both cases, the men were found with only their elbows visible while the rest of their bodies were in the ground.

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Mankessim, Central Region:A chief and a pastor confessed to killing and burying an aspiring nurse at Mankessim in September 2022.The duo is said to have dug a pit in the chief’s house, which is under construction, and buried the lady there.The pastor, Michael Darko Amponsah, who turned out to be the fiancé of the deceased’s sister, was arrested at Cape Coast and he immediately confessed to the crime.

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He then led the police to the house of his accomplice, Nana Onyaa Clark, a local chief, where the body was retrieved.Along with her body, the police also retrieved her bag, her shoes, and other belongings.Cape Coast, Central Region:In May 2022, a level 300 Marketing student of the Cape Coast Technical University (CCTU), Nana Ama Clark, was found dead at the Ola Estate near the Ola College of Education.

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Her body was found on the roadside at Ola Estate near the Ola College of Education, Cape Coast, with her private part cut off, and bruises on her body.At Beposo, near Kuntunase, also in the same region, four persons were arrested for murdering a 23-year-old man in January 2022.The suspects are reported to have tied the deceased with a rope and hit him with clubs until he became unconscious and subsequently died.

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Adukrom, Eastern Region:Between August 30 and September 1, 2022, three teenage Junior High School girls were found dead at Okrakwodwo along the Adukrom-Koforidua Highway in the Okere District.It is alleged that they left their homes to visit some young men in another community around 11:30 pm before they met their untimely deaths.

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At Odumase Krobo on September 12, 2022, a 60-year-old physically-challenged man was murdered and set ablaze in an arson attack.He was allegedly clubbed before a makeshift structure he was sleeping in, was set ablaze by the arsonist(s) in a protracted land dispute.Zakoli, Northern Region:At Zakoli in April 2022, more than eight people were killed and several missing after an attack on a village of Fulani herders.

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The town, near Yendi, is said to have been surrounded by gunmen at about 1 pm.A woman, who survived the attack because she was told she was a woman, said the gunmen separated the women and children to one side and killed only the men.She explained that most of the men were shot at close range while the attackers burnt down the entire settlement and left others with machete injuries.

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Dozens of livestock were killed and looted with motorcycles and other properties.Bono Region:In August 2022, angry youth of Adoe, a farming community in the Sunyani West Municipality, descended on Fulani herdsmen and killed nearly 100 cattle.On March 31, 2022, a 20-year-old ‘pragyia’ rider was allegedly murdered by unknown assailants.

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The deceased, a student of Chiraa Senior High School, was allegedly hired by some three men to take them to Bodamnii Nkwanta.The deceased was killed on the way while he was transporting the passengers to their destination.On July 8, 2022, at Prenkoase, a suburb of Sunyani in the Bono Region, a man believed to be between 25-30 years, was found lying in a pool of blood on the side of the road.

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Ashanti Region:In September 2022, at Konongo, three suspects were arrested over the murder of a 15-year-old girl.The body of the deceased, identified as Regina Sarfo, was found dumped in a bush at Ahenbrom, a suburb of Konongo on September 8, 2022.At Benebene, near Fianko, two people were arrested for allegedly murdering a final-year student of the Tweneboah Kodua SHS.

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The deceased, who operated a motorcycle business at Odaho during school holidays, was allegedly attacked at Benebene near Fianko.At Konongo in the Asante Akyem area, in May 2022, some ‘sakawa boys’ allegedly murdered a 22-year-old girl.Body parts were removed before her body was dumped in a river.

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Western North Region:In July 2022 at Sefwi Bekwai, three people were arrested in connection with the murder of a 27-year-old woman at Sefwi Bekwai Atwumah.The deceased, Martha Tetteh, a resident of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, had travelled to Sefwi Bekwai on Monday, June 27, 2022, to allegedly consult a spiritualist.Her headless body was later found in an uncompleted building at Sefwi Bekwai.

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Volta Region:On June 16, 2022, at Kpetoe in the Agortime Ziope District, a man was killed and his body was found without its head.The deceased, identified as Apetor Yesu, was a homeowner and was allegedly approached by the suspect for accommodation after he was left stranded in Kpetoe.It was reported that after escorting the suspect out of the house, however, Apetor Yesu never returned.

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Also at Kpetoe in June 2022, the police arrested John Adonu, a welder, for his suspected involvement in the killing of an 85-year-old man, Joseph Tawiah Darko.The 85-year-old deceased had earlier been reported to have gone missing on June 14, 2022, after he left the house a day earlier.His decapitated body was discovered under a tree on his farm on June 15, 2022.

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Greater Accra Region:While this is not a case of murder or a killing, in June 2022, at Amasaman, a Ghanaian returnee was arrested after he was captured on video trying to use his 11-year-old daughter for money rituals.Unfortunately for him, the traditional priest he sent the girl to gave him out, explaining that he was not a fetish priest who demands human sacrifices.

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At Abeka on September 7, 2022, a newly-married woman was allegedly murdered in cold blood.The woman, identified as Muniratu Moro, who entered the marriage as a second wife, was found lifeless in a pool of blood.It was discovered too that there was a cut on her throat and her thigh.

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"She was killed in her room and then dragged into her rival’s room, the way she died was not natural and we need to know how she was murdered,” the brother of the deceased, Mohammed Samba said.These are but a few of the cases available to GhanaWeb as of the time of going to press but there are many more that are not captured here.

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