Crime & Punishment of Tuesday, 29 May 2007

Source: Accra Mail

Granddad Rapped Me

A Junior Secondary School is now an outpatient in an Accra public hospital where she is undergoing treatment for complications she has started suffering as a result of her being defiled by her grandfather with whom she lived in 441, Nima in Accra a few years ago.

She was in Class 5 when her grandfather defiled her but a few years after the incident, the unsavoury effects are unfolding to the detriment of the girl.

The Nima Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Awuni Angwubutoge and the District Commander, DSP I.A. Yakubu who got wind of the story are doing their best to get to the bottom of the matter but are for now meeting with hitches as they try to locate the suspect and the little girl.

Little Amina (not real name) was defiled by her grandfather in 441, a segment of Nima when she was in Class 5. The very eloquent girl well known by this writer was sent by her parents to go and live with the said grandfather least expecting that the defilement stories about which they had read and heard would be enacted by so doing.

The father is a literate but the mother is not but both have lived in Accra for so many years. In fact the former was born and bred in Accra.

Amina, now in JSS once upon a time refused to go back to her new home to the surprise of her parents.

When the parents probed her she pointed a finger at her grandfather whom she said had defiled her and gone ahead to have affairs with her.

"Each time he finished he gave me a concoction to drink" she narrated to her parents. An initial report was made to the Police who awaited the complainant to come forward and take them to the suspect but this did not materialize.

The Police who were on stand by to go and effect arrest had to stand down because the father who showed initial interest in having the suspect arrested backed down because of pressure from family elders not to go ahead with the case.

Little Amina has now started exhibiting medical complications suspected to have resulted from her experience at the hands of her pedophilic grandfather.

She is said to be passing an unusual fluid from her private part accompanied by an offensive body odour.

Amina's father is now paying a price of sending his daughter to go and live with her grandfather.

He has already visited the Ridge Hospital on several occasions and bought an assortment of drugs to save Amina from going downhill.

He is however torn between reporting the matter formally to the Police so that the Casanova grandfather is stopped in his tracks or allowing sleeping dogs to lie.

Meanwhile the subject is being kept secret by family members, lest its gets to the attention to other neighbours.

Unfortunately though the matter has caught the attention of some neighbours who would rather the suspect is arrested and brought to book as a way of deterring other evil-minded and irresponsible adults from inflicting such wounds on innocent little girls.

ADM has gathered that not daunted by the odds they are facing in tracing the suspect with virtually no clue at their disposal, the Nima Divisional and District Commanders have stated their resolve in continuing with the search.

ADM has gathered that the father appears to be settling on "giving everything to God" since he is said not ready to embark on the arduous search for justice, which is a characteristic of such cases in Ghana.

The case of defilement has assumed an unprecedented rise in recent times and this is happening at a time when the Police are doing their best to arrest the situation.