Accra: 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 dispatched by the IGP, Mr. Christian Tetteh Yohuno, led to the arrest of two suspects: Mahamuda Lamin and Sherif Abdulai, aka Saani, a 30-year-old cobbler.
According to Ghana News Agency, through initial forensic analysis and acting on credible intelligence, the team first arrested Mahamuda Lamin on October 3. After interrogation, there were some leads pointing to a second suspect. Through the assistance of the assemblyman 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 to setting fire at the murder scene and cooking the internal parts of the victim and eating them.
The police statement indicated that 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. During an inspection at the scene, police found a broken particle of cement block mixed with blood, a knife placed on the deceased’s 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, with the recent case being the murder of 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 operandi were recorded in 2022 at various locations including the Kulpong-Yeyiri road, the High Ranking School on the Napogbakole extension, Goripie near Bulenga, and TI Ahmadiyya School, among others.
The police reported that 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. Over the past four years, more than 500 police officers have been sent on various operational duties to the area to find and arrest key suspects.