The Women and Juvenile Unit (WAJU) of the Police Service has mounted a search for a Somali businessman who was suspected to have sodomised a 16-year old boy. The Chronicle learnt that the suspect, 55 year-old chief executive officer (CEO) of Waikiki Night Club and Restaurant at Adabraka in Accra, Mohammed Ali Omar, had absconded to Republic of Benin.

A provisional medical report from the Korle-Bu Hospital has proved that the boy had been defiled. Police sources said investigations into the case had been intensified to track down the suspect as soon as possible.

Narrating the incident to The Chronicle, the victim, (name withheld) a cleaner at the night club, said on January 12, this year, while passing in front of the night club he saw a wooden board beside the wall with the inscription “Cleaner wanted.”

He said after looking at the notice for sometime a woman who trades in front of the nightclub approached him and said that if he was interested in the job she would talk to the proprietor for him to be employed. The victim said the next morning he, in the company of the woman, went to see the proprietor but they did not meet him.

In the evening while sitting with his friends, the woman called him and said that she had spoken with the proprietor who had accepted to employ him. On the 14 January, this year, the victim started working from 8am–6pm each day, but he said three days later, while going about his duties Omar came to him and started fondling him.

After work, he reported the incident to a senior co-worker, who advised him to be wary of Omar. The victim said the next day while he was sweeping, the suspect asked him to stop and wash his clothes for him. He said after he had collected the laundry outside, Omar called him and asked him to stop the washing and continue with the sweeping.

He said Omar then went to have his bath and at a point in the course of sweeping, he had his back to the entrance of the bathroom so as the suspect came out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist, he put off the light, which had its switch at the entrance of the bathroom, plunging the night club into darkness.

The victim said the proprietor then started fondling him from the back but as he protested, he pushed a handkerchief in his mouth, forced him onto the ground and sexually abused him. The boy said when Omar released him he gave him ?60,000 and asked him not to tell anyone about what had happened.

The victim said immediately he reached home, however, he reported the incident to an elderly neighbour since his guardian was not at home. The neighbour, together with some friends, accompanied him to the Adabraka Police Station to lodge a complaint. They were referred to WAJU.

The victim said, after returning from the police station, he started bleeding and he was rushed to the Adabraka Polyclinic but the nursing officer in charge referred him to Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.

Dr. Kwabena Appiah-Gyekye, a medical officer at the Korle-Bu Hospital, who treated the victim, confirmed that he had been defiled and prescribed a psychological treatment, considering the trauma that the boy had gone through. He was also to undergo an HIV test after six months.

Dr. Appiah-Gyekye stressed that psychological treatment was very necessary for boys who had been defiled since there was the high tendency of such victims also becoming homosexuals when they grew up.