A GNA feature by Samira Larbie
Accra, July 29, GNA- It is December 2022, and the event centre at the Ayawaso North Constituency in the Greater Accra Region is busy as queen mothers engage in a crunch meeting to discuss steps to take to register their displeasure to stop chiefs, parliamentarians, government officials, and assemblymen from interfering with the law on defilement cases.
This act of constant interference by “powers-that-be,” especially in defilement cases, has left perpetrators to escape the law at the expense of the victims and as queen mothers of the areas where most of the cases have occurred, they want to find a solution to it.
In November 2022, Amina, the mother of a five-year-old girl, who was defiled by an Imam who was also her Arabic Teacher, was seen on the streets of Maamobi, a suburb of Ayawaso North Constituency, in the Greater Accra Region, raining curses on a politician and the assemblyman in the area for deceit.
Amina explained that after the Arabic Teacher’s arrest, she had not known peace as threatening calls came through from community leaders and a politician, warning her to get the case out of court for it to be settled amicably at home.
She said the threats became intense so much so that she succumbed to the pressures and got the case out of court on the promise that she would be compensated with a sum of GH¢3000, equivalent to $243, which was not fulfilled and the accused is now walking freely at the expense of her daughter’s health who suffered severe virginal tears.
In a similar case, Ms Jemila Hamid, a 16-year-old girl in December 2022, was assaulted by her elder brother and sustained degrees of injuries for misbehaving.
Through the help of Inerela+ Ghana, a non-governmental organization, she got the support to report her elder brother to the Nima Police Station.
Just when she was about to pen down her official statement, a call from the Chief of the area came through, warning Jemila not to put in a statement if she wants to have her peace of mind at home.
“I had to leave the Police Station after the call without furnishing the Police with a statement,” she added.
In December 2022, https://myinfo.com.gh/2022/12/4-year-old-girl-defiled-by-man-50-at-kasoa/ an online news portal among other news outlets, reported that the family of a four-year-old girl, who was raped by a 50-year-old man, in Kasoa, the Central Region of Ghana, has petitioned the Inspector General of Police to seek justice for the victim after the accused who was arrested was released a day after his arrest.
These cases, that get interfered with, allow victims to get meagre sums for out-of-court settlements and make domestic violence perpetrators go unpunished.
These happenings have sent a wake-up call to these queen mothers; hence, the crunch meeting to find lasting solutions to the act.
It is a fact that no one is above the law, and such happenings should not thrive, but for the influence of power and money, people have thrown away their conscience.
Defilement is a major reproductive justice issue and access to justice is of paramount importance to everyone, particularly victims of defilement. It, therefore, makes defilement, rape, and assault serious crimes under the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 Act 29, and as such must not go unpunished.
Chapter Six of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 Act 29, which talks about Sexual Offence, explains the act of defilement as the natural or unnatural carnal knowledge of any child under sixteen years of age.
Rape is the carnal knowledge of a female of sixteen years or above without her consent. “Whoever commits rape shall be guilty of a first-degree felony and shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less than five years and not more than twenty-five years.”
Assault is defined as- unlawful unless it is justified on one of the grounds mentioned in Chapter One of this Part.
Statistics available at the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service indicate that 1,047 girls were defiled, while 305 women were raped in 2020.
These statistics are attributed to Mr Isaac Ken Yeboah, the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), who disclosed the data at an event and published by the Daily Graphic, described the statistics as alarming.https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/dovvsu-describes-1500-annual-rape-cases-as-alarming.html
A similar 2019, data also indicates that defilement cases saw a rise with 1,270 cases being recorded while rape stood at a figure of 369.
He said about 15,000 cases of violence against women were reported to law enforcement agencies annually, adding that the number of reported cases, was less than the actual number of incidents that occurred.
This is to say that, if the number of cases in this regard were being reported and accused persons were made to face the full rigorous of the law, gender-based violence would at least reduce the numbers if not being eradicated.
Research (Bortei-Doku & Kuenyehia 1998) indicates that defilement leads to adverse long-term reproductive health consequences.
In the case of Amina’s five-year-old daughter, pictures from the court showed how damaged the vagina was, which would have a long-term effect on the child.
Hajia Rukaya Suleiman, Kotokoli Queen mother of Ayawaso North Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, in an interview with Ghana News Agency (GNA), narrated how two women approached her seeking assistance to get justice for their daughters who have been defiled and raped due to the strong support, the suspects were getting from some politicians, the cases had died a natural death.
“This act must stop because it is putting all our efforts as queen mothers in vain and not helping to reduce rape cases in the constituency as perpetrators are made to escape the law,” she said.
Hajia Rukaya said the act of victims not getting justice was a threat to the security of other girls in the constituency and the country at large and a serious situation that needed to be addressed.
Mrs Nana Yamfoah Amua-Sekyi, Director of Public Education, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) said the “whom you know” mantra was affecting the country’s justice system.
She said elsewhere, in other countries, when the complainant of a defilement or rape case decides not to pursue the case any further, the state takes it up and continues until the perpetrator is brought to book.
“But this is not the case here in Ghana. Because according to our justice system, a case cannot continue in court without a complainant and it is about time the system is re-looked at to get perpetrators of GBV to justice,” she stated.
Mrs Amua-Sekyi said Ghana, like all African countries, had been involved in the universal effort to improve access to justice for victims of defilement.
This is why the country has legislation to counter the offence of defilement and rape with the establishment of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit of the Police Service (DOVVSU) in 1998, formerly called the Women and Juvenile Unit of the Ghana Police Service (WAJU) to prosecute such cases but for these intrusions, they do not achieve their aim.
Mrs Mercy Acquah-Hayford, the National Coordinator of Inerela+ Ghana, a non-governmental organization, told the GNA in an interview that the situation was unfortunate affecting efforts made by the NGO and others in seeking justice for victims of GBV in the country.
She said the interference of the so-called so ‘powers-that-be had become one too many and the government needed to take a stance and ensure that perpetrators were effectively dealt with to serve as a deterrent for others if the country was committed to giving justice to these victims.
Mrs Acquah-Hayford said this was important as many of these perpetrators of defilement and rape were walking free in communities some have relocated at the expense of the victims and the tendency of them committing the crime again was extremely high.
Mrs Paulina Louisa Essel, a Licensed Counsellor, and Deputy Chief Investigator CHRAJ, speaking at a media training on how to effectively report domestic violence cases said the issue of powers-that-Be’s interference in the justice system was due to poverty.
A situation she described as unfortunate because no one was above the law and as such this should not be allowed to become the norm to threaten the security of girls and women in the country.
Mrs Essel called on the government to make the laws work to ensure the safety of children and women victims of gender-based violence in the country.
This article was produced with the support of the Africa Women’s Journalism Project (AWJP) in partnership with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and with support from the Ford Foundation.
GNA