Agona Swedru, May 22, GNA - Mr Charles A Wilson presiding over the Agona Swedru Circuit Court has discharged five members of Tuafo and Dentsifo Asafo Companies at Winneba following the failure of the Police to turn in court to prosecute them.

The relatives of the five who were arrested after carrying the gods of the area through the principal streets of Winneba who had thronged the precincts of the court went home in a happy mood when the Judge ask them to go home since the Police did not turn up to prosecute the case. Deputy superintendent of Police (DSP) Nicolas Gasu, District Police Commander, issued a criminal summons to the suspects to appear before the court for allegedly failing to notify the Police about a special event.

The five were Kojo Appiah Kubi, Kwame Kaiko, Kweku Annobil, Michael Abeiku Nyakoh and Fidelia Andoful.

According to the Winneba Police, on May 8, 2007, the suspects together with other persons carried the gods of the Asafo companies through the principal streets of the town to perform rituals after the Aboakyer festival.

The Police said they had a hint that they had planned to celebrate the festival again and deployed three buses full of armed policemen in Winneba on Friday May 7th to arrest the organizers. Neenyi Armah-Seklum, Obaatan of the Tuafo Asafo Company had early denied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the people were preparing to celebrate the festival again as claimed by the Police. He said the priests and priestesses as custom demanded carried the gods through the major streets of Winneba for peace and prosperity a week after the festival.

Neenyi Armah-Sekum appealed to the Minister of National Security to investigate the Winneba Police since according to him, "Were throwing dust into the eyes Ghanaians".

He described the people of Winneba, as peace loving who would not do anything to breach peace and said the government could not spend huge sums of money to provide security in the area all the time. When DSP Gasu was contacted about the arrest of the suspects, he said it was premature to comment and directed GNA to the Regional Commander at Cape Coast.