STRANGE COFFIN AT NKURAKAN (PAGE 19)

TRADING activities at the Nkurakan Market in Koforidua came to a halt last Thursday following the sighting of a six-foot coffin decorated in red cloth at the market.
The traders saw seven eggs in the coffin, which was found at the southern end of the market.
Later, a popular traditional priest in the town by name Sakora burnt the coffin after he had performed some rituals under the directives of the chief of the town, Nene Opata Korley II.
Most of the traders in the market, one of the largest foodstuffs selling and buying points in the Eastern Region, abandoned the area in which the coffin was deposited while a large number of onlookers, some of them travellers, converged on the scene to catch a glimpse of what the local people termed the “wonder of Nkurakan”.
The location of the coffin in the market aroused the suspicion of policemen in the town of a ritual murder but when they rushed to the scene, they did not find any human parts in so they had to stay back.
The mystery surrounding the coffin is not yet known but some of the traders who normally reported at dawn at the market said it might have been deposited by an unknown man who used to carry a coffin at midnight on Mondays and Thursdays, which are the market days of the town, ostensibly for prosperity rituals.
According to Nene Opata Korley, at about 6 a.m. that day, the assembly member for the town and a toll collector informed him that a coffin draped in pure red cloth containing seven eggs had been deposited at the market.
Nene Opata Korle stated that together with his elders, he rushed to the scene, where they saw the coffin.
He said a popular traditional priest known as Sakora, who also came to the scene, offered to perform a ritual to counter whatever intention of the one who deposited the coffin.
The chief said when he agreed, Sakora demanded GH¢10, six flowers perfume—a special perfume purposely used for rituals, a bottle of Florida water and petrol, which he provided after which the traditional priest sprinkled the Florida water on the coffin, poured the powder and the petrol on it, before setting it ablaze.
Sakora, the chief said later, took some of the ashes away.
When contacted, a police source said he suspected the coffin might have contained human parts but when they rushed there, nothing of that nature was found.
The source said the policemen, therefore, went away for the traditional priest and the chief to do whatever pleased them to spiritually counteract the intention of whoever deposited the coffin there.