In front of a small mud house on the outskirts of Breman Brakwa in the Breman-Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa district of the Central Region, 26-year-old Amina Musah sits on a little stool propping her jaw with the cup of her palm.
Musah’s 7-year-old daughter died shortly after eating rice meal served her by an influential neighbour whose child the girl played with.
The little girl was buried without a post-mortem. A nurse at a local clinic wrote that Amina’s baby was poisoned albeit by herself; that the little girl may have swallowed poison.
The suspect at the centre of the controversy is said to be the wife of a medicine man in the area who buried the little girl immediately after the incident, spawning suspicion that the girl may have been used for ritual purposes.
In a poverty-stricken community where most people live on less than one dollar a day, pushing for justice – mostly an expensive venture – is often rare.
Musah fears she will end up in jail if she attempts to seek justice in this matter because she has no money to pay for the services of a lawyer. The suspect is rich and is said to have bribed some people to keep mum.
This tale set in Breman Brakwa unfolded on the 4th of August, 2014, about four months ago. It was never reported to the police. As a result, officers in the town are unwilling to take up the matter, claiming evidence available to them is too weak.
Amina’s fear of losing both her child and her freedom if the matter goes against her and the failure of the police to act mean a killer will be left off the hook.
“This town is like Sodom and Gomorrah,” one resident told Myjoyonline.com, adding, “anything happens here”.
