60-Year-Old Woman Accused of Selling Roasted Human Flesh

A 60-year-old woman was nearly lynched at the Adabraka Market in Accra yesterday after she was accused of allegedly selling human flesh as meat.
The woman, whose name has been withheld by the police to protect her identity, was whisked away to the Adabraka Police Station by the police and some Good Samaritans after a teeming crowd had attempted to lynch her.
The roasted meat, which she carried in an aluminium pan, was scattered at some places in the market during the melee.
A few pieces of the meat were later retrieved by the police after they had rescued the woman, who claimed she was new in the fish and meat trading business.
The Adabraka Market is noted for the sale of smoked and dried fish.
An eyewitness, who gave her name as Ms Naa Lamiley Tseaddo, a trader at the Adabraka Market, said about 9 a.m. yesterday, some of the market women identified the woman as a stranger, since she had not been seen in the market before.
She said the suspect moved from one end of the market to the other, carrying a big aluminium pan containing the roasted meat, which attracted the attention of some of the traders.
Ms Tseaddo said some of the traders found it strange when the woman, who was roaming the market with her ware, could not tell them the kind of meat she was selling.
According to the eyewitness, some of the traders, after a careful examination of the meat, which was moderately priced, raised an alarm that the meat looked like human flesh.
The traders immediately raised an alarm, and within some few minutes trading activities came to a standstill, as they abandoned their wares. That resulted in a chaotic scene as traders and buyers toppled over one another to see the suspected human flesh seller.
With time, different versions of the story were told. While some claimed the woman had been found with fresh human flesh dripping with blood from her aluminium head pan, others claimed she was carrying it in a sack.
Confirming the incident to GhanaStar.com, the Accra Regional Police Command Public Relations Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mrs Effia Tenge, said the police received information around 10 a.m. yesterday about an attack on a woman alleged to be selling human flesh at the Adabraka Market.
She said the police quickly went to the scene and were able to rescue the woman from some persons who were threatening to lynch her.
Mrs Tenge said when the police got to the scene, traders and curious onlookers, including buyers and workers from nearby offices, had crowded around the suspected human flesh trader.
When the woman was taken to the Adabraka Police Station, Mrs Tenge said, she told the police during interrogation that she had bought the meat from the Makola Market following a directive by her pastor.
According to the police, the woman said her two children had died mysteriously and so she had consulted the pastor for spiritual guidance.
The woman is said to have claimed that the pastor, after praying for her, directed her to buy beef from Makola and carry it in and around a marketplace to avert any future occurrence of child death.
The woman was said to have told the police that she went to the Makola Market in the early hours of yesterday and bought the meat and decided to carry it through the Adabraka Market, only to be accused of selling human flesh.
As of the time of filing this report, the police had taken the meat for forensic examination.
A police investigations team has also been dispatched to accompany the suspect to the Makola Market where she claimed she bought the meat.
The police said the suspect’s house would also be inspected.