A 28-Year-old hawker was on Monday night murdered at Abossey Okai in Accra in the most gruesome way by unknown assailants in what is believed to be a ritual killing.

The body of the man lying at the scene of the murder, with his tongue and genitals removed, attracted a large crowd yesterday.

According to an eyewitness, the assailants came in a vehicle at about 11 p.m. on Monday and attacked the victim, who was well known in the neighbourhood as a seller of cocoa drinks and who usually spent the night on the corridor of the upper floor of a storey building.

She said the assailants moved straight to the stairs where the cocoa seller was sleeping and started attacking him.

The eyewitness said she heard the victim screaming and calling for help but she could not go out, since she was the only one around, adding that the assailants sped off immediately after killing the cocoa seller.

This reporter saw the body in a pool of blood yesterday morning, with some of the blood on the wall and on the ground floor.
A huge cement block, a box of matches, a mosquito coil and a bottle of lavender were lying by the body.

According to residents, the area had a power outage at the time of the attack. The Crime Investigation and Forensic Unit of the Ghana Police Service has since taken the body to the Police Hospital mortuary for autopsy.

Superintendent I. A. Yakubu, who is in charge of the Kaneshie District Headquarters, confirmed the incident to the Daily Graphic and said the police had commenced investigations to establish the cause of death.

He said a team of pathologists at the Police Hospital would also assist in the investigations by conducting pathological tests on the body.

The killing of the cocoa drink seller has created panic at Abossey Okai, with some residents accusing 'Sakawa' boys (cyber fraudsters) of orchestrating the killing for ritual purposes to increase their fortunes.