BY Grace Zigah
A wave of anger and shock swept through the town of Assin Breku in the Central Region after residents lynched and set ablaze a man suspected of beheading a nine-year-old boy in one of the most gruesome murder incidents the area has witnessed in recent times.
The suspect, identified only as Asuo, was reportedly caught carrying a sack believed to contain human parts.
According to eyewitness accounts, a woman noticed what appeared to be a human hand in the sack and immediately raised an alarm.
Her outcry drew a crowd of horrified residents to the scene, setting off a frantic search across the community.
The search led to a horrifying discovery: the lifeless body of a young boy lying in a pool of blood along a narrow footpath.
His head and hands had been severed.
The brutal nature of the killing sent shockwaves through the community, confirming fears that a ritual-style murder had just occurred.
Residents, enraged and terrified, quickly turned their attention to the suspect.
Reports say the mob stormed Asuo’s residence, where they allegedly found a bloodstained bedsheet and T-shirt believed to have been used during the killing.
Without waiting for law enforcement, the mob descended on him, beating him to death before setting his body ablaze.
Police officers from the Assin Fosu Division arrived at the scene later, but by then, both the suspect and his victim were dead.
The incident has since left the town in mourning and raised renewed concerns about the rise of mob justice in rural Ghanaian communities.
Police authorities are yet to make arrests connected to the lynching.
They have, however, launched an investigation into both the murder of the young boy and the mob’s retaliatory attack on the suspect.
