Takoradi, Aug. 24, GNA – Kobina Ebo, 25, said to be mentally deranged, had been chained to a coconut tree for the past one year at a Healing Camp at Anaji C. K. Mann, a suburb of Takoradi.
But, while residents and some members of the Pentecostal Healing Church, led by Odiifo Mary regard this as inhuman, close relatives of the man say it is a “humanitarian gesture” by the Church.
“The poor man is left in chains in the open, regardless of the weather and even in the rains,” the concerned Church members and residents who asked not to be named complained to the GNA.
After visiting the Camp to see the man, the GNA was led to the house of Mrs Elisabeth Yalley alias Maame Afia Serwah, a middle-aged woman and grandmother of Ebo.
She said Ebo who fell into bad company at Nima in Accra, where he lived with another relative, Auntie Akua alias Maame Fante, became a drug addict after completing Senior Secondary School about four years ago. He was discharged from a correcting home and sent to stay with her, but soon joined a group of wee smokers to worsen his condition.
Mrs Yalley said Ebo became uncontrollable and was sent back to Accra but managed to return to Takoradi on his own.
The parents of Ebo, Miss Veronica Haizel and Mr Philip Quaicoe, who live together in London but have separated, tried to send their son to stay with them in London but due to his condition this did not materialise.
“Ebo has become a terror and I become frightened when I set eyes on him therefore the decision of Odiifo Mary to confine him is only a humanitarian gesture.”
Mrs Yalley narrated how Ebo was admitted at the Ankaful and Accra mental hospitals but managed to scale the walls and escaped to Takoradi. She said the Church had healed many people with similar mental problems and added that anytime Ebo’s condition improved and was released, he joined the wee smokers again to compound the problem. Odiifo Mary could not be contacted as she was said to have travelled.
Source: GhanaWeb
