Two key suspects arrested in connection with Wa murder cases 

The Upper West Regional Police Command has arrested two key suspects believed to be behind various murder cases in Wa. 

The police breakthrough came after painstaking investigations in the various murder cases recorded since 2021 to date. 

The Upper West Regional Police Command, with support from three officers who were dispatched by the IGP, Mr Christian Tetteh Yohuno, led to the arrest of two suspects. 

They are Mahamuda Lamin and Sherif Abdulai, aka Saani, a 30-year-old cobbler. 

A police statement said through initial forensic analysis and acting on credible intelligence, on October 3, the team first arrested Mahamuda Lamin. 

After interrogation, there were some leads pointing to a second suspect. 

Through the assistance of the assembly man and some community members of Dondoli, a suburb of Wa Municipality, Sherif Abdulai was arrested on October 6, 2025. 

He is said to have confessed that he set fire at the murder scene and cooked the internal parts of the victim and ate them. 

The statement said a search on Abdulai led to the retrieval of a “Villaon keypad mobile phone and an X-base solar powered portable radio, which were later identified as property of Mr Issah Yahaya, the 55-year-old man who was found dead in a motor mechanic shop at Dobila near the Wa market. 

Mr Yahaya was found dead on September 21, 2025, at about 1830 hours. 

The police, during an inspection at the scene, found a broken particle of cement block mixed with blood, a knife placed on deceased face and a cement block stained with blood behind the motor mechanic shop. 

Fifteen murder cases have been recorded in the region between 2021 and 2022 and the recent case is the murder Yahaya at Wa–Dobile on September 21. 

In 2021, police recorded four murder cases at Kpaguri, Loho, Kambale-Mangu and the area between Kaleo and Loh. 

Eleven more cases with similar modus were recorded in 2022 at the Kulpong-Yeyiri road, around the High Ranking School on the Napogbakole extension, Goripie near Bulenga, and TI Ahmadiyya School, Kpaguri near Chorkor, Sawmill around Nakore Petrosol, Tupaso School area. 

Also at the Napogbakole extension around VRA quarters, around the Star Standard Academy, and an area around the Child support orphanage. 

The police say in most of these cases, the victims were watchmen who were attacked while on duty, either strangled to death or suffered head injuries from being hit in the head with blocks. 

“After weeks of intense intelligence work, we have successfully arrested two suspects, Sherif Abdulai, aged 30, and Mahamuda Lamin, aged 25, who are believed to be behind these murders,” the statement said. 

For the past four years, over 500 police officers have been sent on various operational duties to the area to find and arrest key suspects. 

Source: GNA