Uncontrollable tears, shock, and, at some point, rage were the emotions that were expressed as the family, friends and other sympathizers came together yesterday to bid 10-year-old Ishmael Mensah Abdallah, who was gruesomely murdered by his friends for ritual purposes last Saturday.
Ishmael, a Class Four pupil of the Maranatha Preparatory and Junior High School, was killed on Holy Saturday by two teenagers, Nicholas Kini, 18, and Felix Nyarko, 16, at Coca Cola, near Lamptey Mills, a suburb of Kasoa in the Central Region.
It was difficult for people to hold back their tears when the body of the lad, wrapped in black cloth and laid out on a stretcher, was brought to the family house for Muslim prayers before burial.
Mourners
Although a quiet but affable boy in the community, Ishmael's tragic death has attracted both media and public interest, and that was reflected in the crowd that gathered to bid him farewell.
The mourners included close family relations, family friends, residents, his schoolmates and classmates, as well as others from neighbouring communities who had been moved by the incident.
As early as 7 a.m. yesterday, mourners had started gathering at the family house to await the arrival of the body for the final rites.
Also present at the event were policemen from the Kasoa and the Weija divisions and officials of the Ga South Municipal Assembly, led by the Chief Executive, Mr Stephen Nyarni.
Scene
By 12:30 p.m., the entire house was filled with mourners, some of whom could not find space there and had to relocate outside where canopies had been mounted.
Others also found space under trees and beside buildings.
Some of the mourners visited the uncompleted building where the boy was killed by the two teenagers.
The atmosphere initially seemed calm, with some people seen in groups discussing the incident, until the hearse conveying the remains from the Police Hospital pulled up, when the calmness gave way to an outpouring of emotions.
As if by design or coincidence, the mourners started wailing as soon as the hearse arrived at the house a little after 1 p.m.
Both the young and the old could not hold back their tears and it took an effort for the religious leaders to get people to calm down to allow for the solemn Islamic prayers for the dead to be offered, after which the body was conveyed to the Ngleshie Amanfro Muslim Cemetery for burial.
What next?
The Spokesperson for the Abdallah Family, Mr Samed Akalilu, thanked all present for the show of love to the family over Ishmael's killing.
He said now that he had been buried, the family awaited the judicial process to proceed and expressed the hope that justice would be served appropriately.
The suspects appeared before an Ofaakor District Magistrate Court last Tuesday and were remanded in police custody to reappear on April 20, 2021.
Minister visits
The Central Regional Minister, Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, has given an assurance that the government is prepared to go all out to support efforts at bringing every person involved in the heinous crime to book.
Mrs Assan gave the assurance when she led a delegation to visit the bereaved family to empathise with them.
"We are here to commiserate with them and pledge to really go into the matter and pursue it to the letter.
“We assure you that the perpetrators of the crime will be punished, so that it can serve as a deterrent to others mooting similar plans," she said.
Mrs Assan was accompanied by the Central Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mrs Habiba Twumasi-Sarpong; the Director of the Central Regional Gender Department, Ms Richlove Amamoo, and some members of the Central Regional Coordinating Council (CRCC).
While she explained that the incident happened in the Ga South municipality and not at Kasoa, as had earlier been reported, she nonetheless described it as “very unfortunate and pathetic”.
On behalf of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the government, she expressed condolences to the family and also donated an undisclosed amount to the family.
Call on parents
Mrs Assan used the opportunity to advise parents to keep a close eye on their children to ensure that they did not fall prey to those ills that were creeping into society.
She said it was prudent that parents observed closely every move of their children to shield them from harm.
"It is not good for a parent to go to bed while the child is nowhere to be found. We need to work closely with our children, be with them and monitor where they go, even where we have sent them," she said.
Arrests
Apart from the two teenagers who are in police grip over the incident, a third person, a fetish priestess, has also been arrested in connection with the crime.
The priestess, yet to be officially named by the police, was arrested at Amanase, near Suhum in the Eastern Region, by a team of policemen to assist with investigations into the ritual murder.
The Central Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Ms Irene Oppong, told the Daily Graphic that the case docket had been handed over to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters of the Ghana Police Service.
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