A child naming ceremony turned deadly at Gbawe Zero, a suburb of Accra, when a queenmother was shot dead by unknown gunmen, Ghanaian RADAR can report.
Another woman, who was hit by a bullet during the incident, is currently admitted to the University of Ghana Hospital and responding to treatment.
The deceased, Pearl Naa Dodoowa Whitaker, 33, was a mother of two.
According to persons close to her, her enstoolment rites had been completed, and she was only awaiting coronation. Her stool name is said to be Naa Agyinafo I in Papaase, a community on the Accra-Nsawam Road.
The police have confirmed the incident, saying that investigations into the matter were ongoing.
The Odorkor Divisional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Kofi Sarpong, who visited the crime scene, said a Chief by name Nii Ayi Solomon, 44, known in private life as Ibrahim Ayi Kwashie Solomon, came to report that there had been a shooting incident at his residence, where he was organising a naming ceremony for his newborn baby.
He said the chief indicated that the programme started at 10:00 a.m., and by 4:00 p.m., when people had started filing out, leaving a few people around.
“According to him (chief), the programme started at 10:00 a.m., so by 4:00 p.m., people started to leave the place. But there were other things, so some were still there,” he said. ACP Sarpong said around 7:00 p.m., the chief said he was seeing one of the guests off when someone came to tell him that there had been a shooting incident at the venue of the naming ceremony.
A friend of Pearl, Mary Hammond, said she was with the deceased when she was shot.
She said Pearl had served some of the guests present, after which she decided to see off the caterer. “After a long wait for a vehicle, she finally hired a vehicle for her guest and came back to sit by me near an ice chest,” she said.
“She then took her phone and started fidgeting with it, only to hear a series of gunshots. By the time I realised she was sprawling on the ground,” Ms Hammond said. As she began to shout for help, Mary said she lifted Pearl and saw blood oozing from her head. “I also saw that a woman in front of her was also hit by the bullet,” she said.
Ms Hammond said she neither saw the direction from where the bullets were fired, nor those who fired them. Before then, she said there was a firing of muskets by some young men during the ceremony. The police are still investigating the incident, and the Chief is currently in police custody to assist in the inquiry. The motive behind the shooting is yet to be determined.
