General News of Thursday, 8 May 2014

Source: The Finder

Naked dancers invade beach; Nordsee Resort shut down

The law has descended heavily on the owners of a popular beach resort in Accra for promoting nudity and prostitution among teenagers.

The beach resort, Nordsee, located at Korle Gonno, is renowned for enticing women, including teenagers, to dance naked in order to attract male patrons.

Patrons to the beach pay a gate fee of Ghc20 and are entitled to watch the naked dance, termed ‘Mapouka’, from 9pm to 4am.

The naked women, it is said, sit on bottles while doing the dance, thereby exposing their private parts to the patrons.

Meanwhile, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) last Wednesday, April 30, 2014 shut down the beach resort for violating Criminal Code Act 29 and Criminal procedure Code 30, which ban such acts.

When The Finder contacted the Security Coordinator of AMA, Mr. Joseph A. Okine, on the closure of the beach, he indicated that the Assembly had information about the nefarious activities taking place at the beach.

As part of its investigations, the AMA sent an official to verify the authenticity of the information on February 14, 2014.

The official paid a gate fee of Ghc20 and witnessed the women dancing naked at the beach resort.

Mr. Okine said the owner of the beach resort, Samuel Ekow Yartey, was invited to the AMA on three occasions and asked to stop the Mapouka night, which the AMA said was unacceptable.

According to Mr. Okine, in April, the Assembly again had information that the Mapouka dance was still going on at the beach resort.

This, he said, led the AMA to lock up the place since the authorities of the beach had refused to put a stop to it.

During the closure of the beach, the caretaker, Mr. Patrick Sackey, currently on bail, was arrested. The owner, Mr. Yartey, however, reported to the AMA on Monday, May 5, 2014.

Mr. Okine stated that the place is still locked up and all activities have been stopped for further investigations.

When The Finder visited the place yesterday, the authorities of the beach resort had posted a notice - ‘Renovation in Progress’ - intended to deceive the public.