A Women’s Health and Public Interest Advocate has flayed the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Mrs. Nana Oye Lithur, for her seeming disinterest in using the existing Children’s Act to give social protection to some Ghanaian children, but instead chasing the interstate succession amendment bill in parliament.

Dr. E. K. P. Kwarko chastised the sector minister for doing little to protect children, who are being defiled by adults in many parts of the country.

He made particular reference to a JOY NEWS report a fortnight ago on school children at Ahwiam, Ningo Prampram in the Greater Accra Region; who have had to drop out of school, after being impregnated by fisher folks, to whom these children allegedly offered sex for fish.

According to Dr. Kwarko, the Children Act of 1998, Act 560, regards one who has not attained the age of 18, as a child, and cannot give consent to marriage; while any adult who sleeps with a girl or a boy under the age 16 is deemed to have committed statutory rape (defilement).

Speaking to The Chronicle, Dr. Kwarko, who is an Obstetrician/Gynaecologist at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), bemoaned the apparent lack of social protection safety net for children and the vulnerable.

“Is it not ironic that, while the sector minister is busy chasing a yet to be made law, she seems disinterested in using one that has already been passed to protect these poor victims in Ningo Prampram?” Dr. Kwarko quizzed.

He advised the Children’s Ministry to take immediate and appropriate steps to have the alleged Ningo Defilement Perpetrators arrested and prosecuted where appropriate.

The Public Interest Advocate and Women’s Health Specialist added his voice to the call made by Prof. F.T. Sai, in March 2014, for the age of consent to sex to be raised to 18 years to coincide with the age of marriage.

He encouraged the Social Welfare Unit at Ningo to support these young girls, who had dropped out, to go back to school. One of the victims is reported to be 13 years of age, and aspires to be a nurse.

Proffering solutions, the women’s health and public interest advocate, charged the Gender Ministry to team up with the Chief/Elders of Ahwiam to counsel school children to focus on their education and avoid self-gratification now. He encouraged the victims’ parents to find jobs, in order to support their wards.

According to him, it was the responsibility of the Government to improve the general economic wellbeing of the people in Ningo Prampram and the country at large, so that children do not have to drop out of school for lack of support.

‘Children’, he noted, are the future of this nation, and we should all do our bit in preparing them for the future.