Bolgatanga (U/E), Jan. 7, GNA - Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service in the Upper East Region, prosecuted 91 cases last year.

The crimes include defilement, rape, causing damage, unlawful child removal, non-maintenance, abduction, offensive conduct, assault, threat of death, and exposing children to danger.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Superintendent Owusu Donkor, Regional Crime Officer, expressed dismay about the persistent increase in domestic violence rate in the region, saying it was an act that affected women and children's rights, hence the need for young men especially to desist from such unruly behaviour. "We have in conjunction with the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC) mapped out some strategies to deal with people who still refuse to heed to advice given by DOVVSU over the years," he said. He emphatically indicated that rape, defilement and threat of death were the most critical cases that appeared to have dominated all the other cases last year.

He further entreated couples in the region and the country at large to focus on how to bring peace and solidarity to their respective families since they were the only weapons that could lead a community to development= .. Asked how DOVVSU was going to fight against domestic violence in the region, he said education and sensitization was key on the plans adopted to curb the issue of domestic violence in the region. He said DOVVSU in collaboration with MOWAC had taken the challenge to educate and sensitize people on the problem which was considered a first-degree felony in the supreme law and other related crimes against women and children.

He cautioned people engaged in subjecting their wives and children int= o brutal beatings and assault to refrain from it. He also called on the traditional authorities and churches and concerned members in the society to contribute their quota to help champion the cause on violence against women which claimed a lot of lives of women and youth in recent times. "Domestic violence does not only abuse the rights of women and child= ren but I think to a large extent, it flies in the face of the law of the land, thus I urge all responsible people to come together and work collectively i= n order to clamp down on the rate of domestic violence in this region," Sup= t. Donkor advised.