By Philip Tengzu
Wa, (UW/R), Sept. 01, GNA – A Wa Circuit Court on Friday set October 17, 2023, to give judgment in one of the four dockets built in the defilement case against one Ahmed Rashid, alias Anaata.
The Court presided over by His Honour Mr Jonathan Avogo had also asked the prosecution to file written addresses to the court on September 27, 2023.
The accused person, Friday, opened his defense in that docket, mounted the witness box, and was cross-examined by the prosecutor, but without a lawyer.
That docket involved three survivors of the alleged defilement and six counts.
The accused person admitted that he knew two out of the three survivors mentioned in that docket, with one of them being his stepmother’s daughter.
Rashid Ahmed, the accused person, also admitted that he had one wife with two children aged about five years and about two years, and had also impregnated an 18-year-old girl, whom the prosecution said was a Junior High School pupil.
The accused person, during cross-examination, also admitted that he was once accused by his aunt some years ago of sleeping with her daughter.
The prosecution, led by Mr Saeed Abdul Shakur, a Principal State Attorney in the Upper West Region, during the cross-examination, put it to the accused person that he lured the survivors with food to defile them, which the accused person denied.
He also put it to the accused person that he exploited his relations with one of the survivor’s mothers to sexually molest the survivor, but he once again denied it.
The prosecution also suggested to the accused person that when his wife left for her family house after a misunderstanding ensued between the accused person and the wife, for about three months the accused person had that period as a “holiday” to have sex with girls, which he again denied.
One Razark Adam, who mounted the witness box for the accused person, also admitted, during cross-examination, that the friends of the accused person were mostly women and girls.
Meanwhile, Rashid Ahmed, alias Anaata, is also expected to open his defense in two other dockets on Wednesday, September 6, 2023.
Rashid Ahmed, A.K.A. Anaata, a popular Master of Ceremony (MC) for Islamic Weddings in Wa, aged about 35 years, is standing trial for about 20 counts of defilement, attempted defilement, and indecent assault, which he had denied in court.
The suspected serial paedophile is alleged to have defiled about 30 girls in Wa aged between 12 and 15 years, but nine survivors had testified in the case.
GNA