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The Bolgatanga Magistrate Court in the Upper East Region, on Thursday, remanded five persons, including a 29-year-old self-styled evangelist, into prisons custody for playing different roles that led to the molestation of three old women they claimed were witches.

Inspector Gilbert Boateng Addae, the police prosecutor, told the court, presided over by His Worship Osman Abdul-Hakeem, that on June 6, 2017, at about 6:00am, the evangelist raised a false alarm that the three old women were witches.

Based on the allegation, the other accused persons, including a sixth accused persons, now on the run, organised and attacked the three women and threatened to kill them.

The women ran to the Palace of the Gare Chief in the Talensi District to report the accusations.

But, whilst at the palace, the accused persons managed to whisk the women away to meet a Witch Doctor at Yeliwongo in the Republic of Burkina-Faso.

According to the prosecutor, the three women were maltreated at the hands of the Witch Doctor for three days.

On June 9, 2017, the accused brought the three women back and told the Chief of Gare that the women had been confirmed to be witches by the 'Witch Doctor' at Yeliwongo, and that they were sending them to Gambaga for another spiritual trial.

Inspector Addae told the court that, the chief refused to grant the request of the accused persons, and asked them to free the women.

This order by the Chief provoked the accused persons, who threatened to kill keep them in his palace.

Still not satisfied, the accused persons went to the room of the three women to search for a magical pot that the Evangelist had claimed the suspected witches used to bewitch their victims.

A resident, who witnessed the rummage by the accused persons, reported the incident to the police.

However, when the police proceeded to the scene to arrest them, they took to their heels, but were later arrested.

The evangelist escaped arrest that fateful day, but on Thursday, June 15, luck eluded him. He was also arrested at Pelungu, upon a tip off.

His worship Abdul-Hakeem, after hearing the police prosecutor, remanded all the five suspects into prison custody. He also granted a bench warrant for the arrest of the sixth person, now on the run.

The five suspects were charged with separate offences, including raising false alarm, unlawful damage, and unlawful entry, and would reappear in court on June 30, 2017.

Accusations of witchcraft are fast gaining ground in the Upper Eat Region. Just last Tuesday, five suspects were remanded into police custody in connection with the lynching of a 67-year-old widow at Pelungu.