The Butumagyeabu townwship, a farming community near Sekondi in the Western region on Tuesday became the centre of attraction as thousands of people trooped there to catch a glimpse of ‘the snake man’. The man, whose name was not immediately known, was alleged to have turned from a snake into a human being.

When Daily Guide got the community at about 1:15pm, the forecourt of the chief’s palace where the alleged snake man was being kept had been besieged by irate youth of the area who were calling for the head of the man. One of the youth, Ebenezer Forson told Daily Guide in an interview that the man’s alleged action indicated that he was a wizard so he deserved to die.

According to him, the man had confessed to being a wizard and that he had caused a lot of harm to people in the area including killing some of them. Briefing Daily Guide on the mysterious incident, Mr. John Laar, a farmer, said he was going to farm around 11:00am on Tuesday when he saw two snakes engaged in a scuffle on the ground. He explained that he wanted to use his cutlass to kill the snakes but surprisingly, one of the reptiles quickly crawled away.

Mr. Laar disclosed that even though he was scared, he mustered courage and attempted to kill the other snake that was still around, but as he raised the cutlass to smack the snake, the reptile started taking on a human form. The farmer said as the snake was turning into a human being, he hit its mouth with his cutlass, but it suddenly turned into an old man believed to be in his early sixties. The old man prevailed upon Mr. Laar not to kill him, and warned him also not to reveal what he had seen, as he (Laar) would die in two days’ time if he told anyone.

The farmer went on to say that he was angered by the strange man’s utterance and so decided to let the cat out of the bag. He told Daily Guide that he dragged the snake man to the place of the chief of the area and called some radio stations in Takoradi to break the news to them. “Within a few minutes, those who had heard the story on radio rushed in to see the man”, the farmer said. People who were at the scene called the police, who came and swiftly whisked the ‘snake man’ away so as to avoid any possible misfortune.