General News of Wednesday, 19 June 2013

Source: The Ghanaian Chronicle

Woman subjected to vaginal search over missing GHc800.00

A thirty-year-old woman is struggling to come out of a psychological trauma after she was allegedly subjected to torture by a mob at Kejetia, after being accused of stealing a co-passenger’s GH¢800.

The victim was stripped naked and subjected to vaginal search and physical molestation by her accusers, who insisted that she took the money.

After supervising the dastardly act, which happened in the full glare of the public at the Kejetia terminal, the man later realised he left the money at home.

It took the intervention of the good samaritans to save the second-cloth dealer, who is yet to recover from the harrowing ordeal.

According to a broadcast journalist with Luv FM in Kumasi, Kwabena Owusu-Ampratwum, who had first-lead to the story, the victim (name concealed) boarded a vehicle with her accuser, Augustine Brefo, a cold store operator, from Offinso to Kumasi that fateful day.

When they got to their final destination, the man complained that his money was missing, and accused the woman who was sitting close to him aboard the vehicle of stealing the money.

After a search of the lady’s purse did not reveal the money, Augustine raised an alarm, which attracted a charged mob, threatening to lynch her.

According to the woman, her denial and pleas to be taken to the nearby Kejetia police station to report the alleged theft fell on deaf ears. Augustine and his accomplices would not budge, but insisted on retrieving the money from the poor woman.

They led her to the front of a nearby public toilet where she was stripped of her clothes. After being stripped naked, the woman was asked to set her legs apart to reveal her genitals, to ensure that she had not inserted the money in her vagina.

The genital search did not satisfy Augustine, who is also a Pentecost Deacon, and he allegedly forced the helpless woman to invoke curses if she was innocent. She obliged by calling four river deities to invoke the curse.

However, two Good Samaritans finally rescued the woman and escorted her to the Offinso lorry station after the incident was reported to the Kejetia police and Augustine was arrested.

The case is currently being investigated by the Central Police Criminal Investigations Department.