News

Swedru boy’s assault case: GLOMEF asks Gender Ministry to show keen interest

• By EDMOND GYEBI
• March 26, 2019
• 36

The Executive Director of Global Media Foundation (GLOMEF), a human rights media advocacy organization with focus on women and children’s rights has called on the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Madam Cynthia Mamle Morrison to show personal interest in the assault case involving four (4) persons including a guard of the Agona West Municipal Assembly and a teenage boy.

Speaking in an interview with WatchGhana.Com in Accra, Mr. Ahenu said the "abuse of children has been on the increase in Ghana with little or no punishment for perpetrators".

The four suspects who were arrested and currently remanded into police custody were seen in a video that went viral on social media particularly the assembly guard unsympathetically kicking the boy in the head with his boot after accusing him of stealing.

The little boy believed to be engaged in child labour (bread selling) at the Swedru lorry station was forced to kneel down before the suspects who kept accusing and molesting him for a crime he denied any knowledge about. 

In spite of his plea for mercy, his accusers would not have any of that, and ended up assaulting him. One of the accusers was heard loudly in the video admiring and describing the assault as ‘Bruce Lee style’ and was still demanding another ‘Bruce Lee kick’.  

Even though the guard, Peter Danso and his colleague, Isaac Ntsiful on Monday appeared before the Swedru Magistrate Court together with Sampson Aikins, a baker and Francis Yorke, a student on provisional charges of conspiracy to commit crime and assault, the Executive Director of Global Media Foundation believes justice would be properly served if key stakeholders like the Gender Ministry/Minister rallied behind the victim.

According to him, the suspects deserved to be severely punished for their criminal acts to serve as deterrent for other abusers of children and women in the country. Mr. Ahenu who admired the action taken by the Police in Agona West Municipality was of the view that a show of interest in the case by Madam Cynthia Morrison who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area would serve as morale booster for the Police to do more in the future. 

The four suspects are to reappear in court on April 11, 2019.

In Court 
Police prosecutors pleaded with the court presided over by Mr Isaac Appietu to remand the accused persons to prevent them from interfering with ongoing investigations into the matter and for their own security as the incident had drawn the interest and ire of the public.

According to the police, there were other suspects yet to be arrested in connection with the case.

In a rebuttal, Mr Frederick Selby, lawyer for the four accused persons disagreed with the prosecution and pleaded for bail for them on the grounds that since the prosecution had presented a charge sheet containing charges against all the accused persons, it meant that they had completed their investigations.

He also noted that since the prosecution failed to indicate that there were other accused persons who are at large on the charge sheet, it meant that they had completed their investigations into the matter and disagreed with the prosecution that if the accused persons were granted bail, they would interfere in further police investigations, saying that “it is not true that the accused persons can interfere with investigation.”

He added that the accused persons had unlawfully been detained for more than 48 hours against constitutional provisions on fundamental human rights of all manner of persons.

Judge’s submission

The presiding judge although agreed that assault is a bailable offence, he also agreed with the plea of the prosecution that they were doing further investigation to track other suspects who appeared in the video to assist in further investigations.

He also took into account the safety of the accused persons since the issue had received huge public outcry and further charged the prosecution to hasten their investigation to enable the court to look into the merits of the case at the next adjourned date.

Source: WatchGhana.Com