There are abundance of reports, thanks to social media and mainstream media that indicate that there is a sustained rise in the incidences of ritual killings in the country mostly for money.
Even more worrisome in the opinion of this newspaper, is the involvement of people from age groups that would, ordinarily, be classified as vulnerable.
The way these criminals go about their activities is as blood chilling, as it is horrendous. They sometimes rape, maim and kill to harvest the sensitive and vital organs of their victims.
No one is spared by the perpetrators of this heinous crime, who see it as a short cut to wealth and fame.
In the opinion of this newspaper, ritual killing is a crime that ought to have been wiped out from the society, but for the penchant of people wanting to get rich quick by any means necessary.
It was reported a fortnight ago, a Chief and a Pastor were arrested for allegedly killing and burying a 25-year-old student nurse, Georgina Asor Botchwey for ritual purposes.
The story is that, Georgina left home at Yeji in the Bono East Region to attend an interview at the Ankarful Nursing Training College in Cape Coast and landed in the hands of the pastor who is believed to be her sister’s fiancé.
“Following her disappearance, our “brother-in-law” was arrested in connection with that and he confessed that she had been sold to a chief in the Central Region, Nana Clark, but when they went there she had been killed,” this was according to the uncle of the deceased.
Similarly, last year, the police in Kasoa arrested two teenage boys over the murder of a 10-year-old boy identified only as Ishmael, who they lured into an uncompleted building and reportedly killed him.
This situation seems to be worsened by the fading parental and cultural values as well as gross unemployment.
Unfortunately, in our view, there are also reports of parents encouraging their children to go into crime, especially internet scams.
In the considered opinion of this newspaper, crimes continue to fester, because punishments are not adequately meted to criminals. The judicial process takes forever to conclude and when sentences are passed, in most cases, they are a slap on the wrist.
The maxim crime does not pay should be in action and not in words only.
