Man Grabbed For Attempted Murder

A man's mad desire to get rich quick through the latest nefarious means, popularly known as �sakawa�, has been given away by a renowned fetish priest at Asasetre in the Ellembele District of the Western Region. The suspected �sakawa� man, Philip Ezah Sene, a 58-year-old man resident at Effiakuma near Takoradi, lured his friend, Philip Abore, to a fetish shrine at Asasetre to be killed for ritual purposes in order to be fabulously rich. However the fetish priest, Komfo Kwame Ampofo, who feigned interest in Sene�s plot, reported the issue to the police. The suspect is now languishing in police cells at Nkroful in the Nzema area. Komfo Kwame Ampofo has been commended by the police and the people in the area for doing a yeoman�s work by alerting the police of Sene�s diabolical intentions. Komfo Ampofo had led Abore, a 26-year-old carpenter, to the bush under the pretext of killing him and returned with the knife totally covered with a duck�s blood, to the admiration of Sene that the job had been done. Briefing Daily Guide on Thursday, ASP Daniel Ohene-Djan, Nzema East Municipal Police Commander, said Sene is a native of Teleku Bokazo and Abore hails from Agona Swedru, but both lived in the same vicinity at Effiakuma, a suburb of Takoradi. Last Monday, July 27, Sene went to Abore�s room at Effiakuma to spend the night, with the excuse that he (Sene) had a visitor who was sleeping in his single room. At dawn, Sene allegedly blew some powdery substance on the face of Abore and consequently lured him to Komfo Kwame Ampofo�s shrine at Asasetre in the Ellembele District, with the aim of killing Abore for ritual purposes to make him very rich. Before then, Sene had earlier discussed the sinister idea of acquiring wealth with Komfo Ampofo, who on pretext, agreed that he (Komfo Ampofo) would either need a human skull and a fee of GH�600 or an amount of GH�1,200 to perform certain rites, which Sene agreed to provide later. Komfo Ampofo quickly told the police about the wicked plan of the suspect and made the police understand that as a trained fetish priest and herbalist, he detested people who engaged in �blood money�, and asked the police to cooperate with him to expose Sene. The police, according to ASP Ohene-Djan, therefore agreed and on Tuesday July 28, 2009, at about 8 pm, the suspect brought Abore to the shrine of Komfo Ampofo who asked Sene to wait whilst he and his apprentice (Joseph Tei), took Abore to the bush to be killed for the rituals. By then, Komfo Ampofo had called the police, who had already laid ambush in the bush and handed over the victim to them. Komfo and his apprentice killed a duck and covered the knife with its blood and poured the rest of it in a small pot. On their return, the fetish priest told Sene that Abore had been killed and showed him the knife which was completely stained with blood; the apprentice was carrying the rest of the blood in a small pot. The fetish priest then gave a red cloth to Sene to put around his waist in order to go through the final rituals at the shrine, after which the small pot was to be handed over to him for safe-keeping in his house. This was supposed to miraculously produce Ghana cedis for him on a daily basis. Komfo Ampofo then instructed Sene to repeat certain incantations after him. As Sene repeated those words, the police, who were in mufti, came from their hideout and apprehended him. He was taken to the Nkroful police station and was surprised to see Abore (the living dead), waiting for him. Sene is currently in police custody while investigations continue. Daily Guide independent investigation indicated that Sene allegedly killed his wife some years ago and was jailed 22 years. He was released last year, only to allegedly engage in �sakawa�.