Family heads and chiefs must stop adjudicating child abuse cases because it is an offence to do so, Chief Justice (CJ) Kwasi Anin Yeboah has warned.

Such cases, the chief justice noted, are criminal acts which ought to be prosecuted by the state.

Speaking at the inauguration of the child-friendly and gender-based violence circuit court in Damongo in the Savanna region, Justice Anin Yeboah said: “Relegating such cases to tradition where the adjudicator is the head of the family or chief is strongly discouraged.”

“It is an offence to do so under the laws of Ghana,” the CJ stressed.

“The laws frown on that. Let us, together, instil discipline in our communities, and we have to change our attitudes toward perpetrators who commit these crimes,” the head of the judiciary said.