Five men, including the chief of Suponso in the Birim Central municipality in the Eastern Region, have been arrested by the Oda Police in connection with the lynching of a 21-year-old student, Saviour Azigi. They are Nana Amoah Kwadwo II, the Suponsohene; Kwadwo Ahwiren, the Safoohene of the village; Kwadwo Opey, Kwabena Akosi and Kwadwo Okwaning, all farmers at Suponso. Nana Amoah is being charged for his failure to report to the police after his subjects had allegedly lynched the deceased until he was invited by the police on February 12, 2010, while Ahwiren, Opey, Akosi and Okwaning were said to have been actively involved in the murder of the student. A source told the Daily Graphic at Suponnso at the weekend that Nana Amoah was invited by the Oda Police last Friday to tell them why the deceased was lynched. After he had narrated the whole incident to them, they detained him to assist them in their investigations. The four accomplices were arrested at Suponso last Sunday and detained at the Oda Police cells. According to a police source, a series of killings, suspected to be for ritual purposes, had struck panic at Atiankama Nkwanta and Suponso for some time now. Two men were reportedly killed under mysterious circumstances, while a female teacher and a pupil were also allegedly abducted in the municipality within a period of three weeks. Sensing danger, the youth of Suponso organised themselves into a vigilante group to check the activities of the suspected ritual murderers. The police source said on January 30, this year, a female farmer at Suponso raised alarm that she was being attacked by a suspected ritual murderer, which attracted many people to the area. He said the youth of the village arrested Azigi, maltreated him and sent him to the chief's palace. After interrogating the deceased, Nana Amoah ordered Ahwiren, Opey, Akosi and Okwaning to take him to the police station at Akyem Manso. The source said the four accused persons refused to convey the deceased to Manso in a vehicle but dragged him on the road from Suponso to Atiankama Nkwanta, a distance of about five kilometres, amidst brutal assault. He said on reaching Atiankama Nkwanta in the night, the youth of that community also joined their Suponso counterparts to assault the young man with stones, blocks and clubs, killing him in the process. The source said before the Oda Police could hear of the incident and go to the scene, the young man was already dead. Investigations by the police later revealed that the man, who was identified as Saviour Azigi, was a student in Accra and that he had developed mental problems recently and had thus been sent to his parents at Akyem Oseenase, near Asamankese. Azigi was said to be receiving spiritual treatment at a healing camp in the town but sneaked out from the camp to where he was mistaken for a ritual murderer and lynched. When the Daily Graphic contacted the Oda Municipal Police Commander, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ACP) Victor Amanning Kwarteng, on the issue, he confirmed the arrest and detention of the chief and four others from Suponso to assist the police in their investigations. Source: Daily Graphic