Persons who engage in mob action should be prosecuted – Psychological Association

The Ghana Psychological Association (GPA) is calling on law enforcers to ensure that persons who engage in mob action are brought to book.

Another alleged witch was nearly lynched on Saturday, August 29, 2020, by the youth of Sumpini, a farming community in the West Gonja Municipality of the Savannah Region.

Meri Ibrahim, a 60-year-old woman was beaten mercilessly by the youth of the community after she was accused of withcraft.

She sustained cutlass and stone injuries on her head and face.

Madam Ibrahim and three other women who managed to escape from the attackers were accused of bewitching the youth of the community.

The mob attacked her claiming that she and her colleagues were planning to kill a gentleman of the community.

This happened barely a month after the lynching of 90-year old Akua Denteh in the same Region.

Mob justice is a criminal offence in Ghana.

Act 29, Section 84 of the Criminal Code of 1960 states that whoever unlawfully assaults any person is guilty of a misdemeanour.

Section 69 also says whoever intentionally and unlawfully causes harm to any person shall be guilty of a second-degree felony.

Speaking to Citi News, the Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Psychological Association, Joy Anima Debrah asked for laws on mob justice to be enforced.

“It is so embarrassing that we have witch camps that are being tolerated in communities to the extent that people have to run away. The abuses that go on there, nobody can tell. If it is something that is criminal, we need to punish the offenders.”

She also called for an intensified campaign against the practice.

“We also need to increase education on this issue so that people get to know that this is a crime. Though ignorance of the law is no defence, some of these occurrences do not just happen out of the blue, they are harmful cultural practices stemmed out of belief systems.”

 

 

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