The third runner-up of this year’s Miss Commonwealth Ghana beauty pageant has shared a chilling account of how she was allegedly tortured over a missing GH¢500.
Nana Ama Essien, 24, who emerged as Miss Role Model in the pageant said she was dragged to a shrine at Kukurantumi near Koforidua in the Eastern Region where she was taken through “trial by ordeal”.
Along with other suspects, Nana Ama explained that the visit to the shrine was to smoke out the identity of the person who took the GH₵500 at the pageant house about a month ago.
Narrating her ordeal on Adom FM’s morning show, Dwaso Nsem programme Tuesday, Nana Ama alleged that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Miss Commonwealth Ghana pageant called her under the pretext of making travel arrangements for her as part of her contract.
But instead of the travel arrangements, Nana Ama said she found herself on a Koforidua-bound car to a shrine owned by a fetish priest by the name, Togbe Sitor.
On getting to Torgbe Sitor’s shrine, Nana said she was presented with an egg to begin the ritual on identifying the thief.
The nine other suspects were also presented with eggs.
“We were presented with eggs which were instructed by the chief priest to throw into the air and allow for a free fall where the owner of an egg that failed to break would be deemed guilty of the offence,” Nana Ama narrated.
Unfortunately for Nana Ama, her egg turned out to be a cooked one and as such, failed to break on its fall, making her the guilty one per Torgbe Sitor’s standards.
It was at this point that her ordeal started.
Togbe Sitor ordered two of his stewards to take her through all forms of torture to extract a confession from her.
“They stripped me naked and beat me with the back of a cutlass for stealing the money; they put my finger in hot palm oil, threatening to chop it off if I don’t confess,” she narrated.
Nana Ama alleged that while she was being beaten at the shrine, the CEO of Ms Commonwealth, Princess Duncan, was taking videos of the assault.
Aside from the emotional trauma, the young lady said she also suffered injuries, especially at her back where she was struck many times.
After the horrific experience, Nana Ama said she, together with her colleagues, was made to swear not to tell anyone about the bitter happenings at Torgbe Sitor’s shrine.
Unable to bear the pain, she told her uncle and the matter was reported at the Koforidua Regional Police station who subsequently arrested Ms Duncan.
Meanwhile, when reached for comment, organisers of the pageant declined to respond to the allegations, threatening to sue any media organisation that may publish the story and her photo.