With the recent upsurge in sexual offenses against minors, the Public Affairs Unit of the Accra Regional Police Command will in a few days commence an educational and sensitization campaign that would last for a year.

The campaign, which will be dubbed ‘Reporting Defilement to the Police Does not Kill,’ is targeted at empowering and encouraging victims of such offenses to be able to report their ordeal to the necessary authorities for the law to take its course against offenders.

Leading the campaign, ASP Effia Tenge, Accra Regional Public Relations Officer, disclosed to The Finder that statistics indicate that the situation has escalated, therefore action must be taken.

According to her, among the major offenses - murder, robbery, rape and defilement, the latter recorded the highest number of cases of 1,917 in 2013 and 1,889 in 2014, and as of January to September 2015, 1,237 cases had been recorded nationwide.

ASP Tenge, speaking on the need for the campaign, divulged that it has been observed that children who are abused are threatened with death upon disclosure, hence most of them do not report such cases.

“This threat inhibits victims to report their predicament to the necessary authorities for action to be taken for the fear of dying,” she reiterated.
She also noted that aside the fear of death, family stigmatisation, religious or cultural practices, and unwarranted media publications have been known to compel victims and their families to keep quiet.

“I am positive that with this campaign, both young boys and girls would be fully equipped with the relevant information on sexual abuse,” she opined.

Leader and initiator of the crusade, ASP Tenge said the failure of victims to report on time often makes prosecution difficult because evidence is disrupted.
“The effects of sexual abuse are enormous in scope and sphere, hence we need to protect children from such consequences,” she informed.

Narrating a victim’s ordeal, ASP Tenge said, “A mother disclosed that her daughter fears all males and screams when she is idle”.

She stated that aside the trauma, some victims contract Sexually Transmitted Infections, and in some extreme cases others get pregnant.
“All these bring untold hardship to the families of the victims and the nation since they become social burdens.”

She further opined that in most cases girls, because of poverty and ignorance, are promised money, food and clothes only to be defiled.

The movement also targets parents as well; they will also be sensitised on the need to create the enabling environment for their wards to be able to communicate with them should they be abused in any manner.

Information gathered per records, according to her, points to the fact that some parents shed their responsibilities and do not even know what their kids eat, which creates the opportunity for perverts to take advantage of these unsuspecting minors.
The crusade will see a team of experts: clinical psychologists, social workers, police officers and ambassadors tour schools to educate pupils on sexual abuse.

ASP appealed to parents and the general public to collaborate with the police in the campaign against defilement and endeavour to report such cases promptly to the Domestic Violent and Victim Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service.

The Public Relations Officer called on the law courts to be swift in dealing with such cases to serve as a deterrent to others.