Former Chairman of the church of Pentecost, Rev Dr Apostle Opoku Onyina has established that it is predominantly poverty stricken older women that are mostly decorated with a “witchcraft” tag.
His statement follows the gruesome assassination of ninety-year-old Akua Denteh who was believed to be a witch by some group of people in Kafaba.
Condemning the act, Rev Dr Onyina also identified how impossible it is to throw the witchcraft label at a people from rich and influential families. He believes that it is mostly the vulnerable women who experience this shame.
Speaking in an interview with OkayFM’s Kwame Nkrumah Tikesse, the Pentecost pastor stated that often times, these people are mostly suspected with zero proof adding that they are even blamed for the misfortunes of other family members.
“The fight against the witchcraft tag is more difficult than that of COVID-19. In Africa people are quick to label someone a witch. They blame them for all their problems. Poor people are the ones who suffer a lot from this stigma. You cannot tag a rich man’s mother as a witch. Especially the one who completely trusts his mother? You cannot. It is mostly the poor and vulnerable that are chased around with a witch tag,” the Apostle said.
He added that physical abuse is not the right approach to solving spiritual matters.
“Witchcraft is a spiritual thing. We don’t solve spiritual issues physically. Beating, killing and all forms of physical abuse is not the right way to handle these things. We are too quick to believe these things without praying about it first,” he indicated.
