Story: Della Russel Ocloo
Three women’s rights groups have called on the Legon Police and the authorities of the University of Ghana, Legon, to expedite investigations into the alleged sexual molestation of Amina Haruna by some students of the Mensah Sarbah Hall (Okponglo) of the university.
The groups are the Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana (Netright), the Women’s Manifesto Coalition and the Domestic Violence Coalition.
Convenors of the coalition, Mrs Angela Dwamena-Aboagye, Ms Hillary Gbedemah, Dr Akua Britwum (Netright), Ms Hamida Harrison (Women’s Manifesto), Ms Adwoa Bame (Wise) and Adolf Awuku Bekoe, the National Co-ordinator of the Domestic Violence Coalition, said the action of the students was not only ghastly but barbaric and demeaning to womanhood.
They said the behaviour of the students was anti-social and tantamount to gang rape.
According to them, the delay by the authorities and the police in apprehending the suspects and taking appropriate action had the tendency to increase gender-based violence against women.
Addressing a news conference in Accra, members of the coalition said the historical silence surrounding sexual violence perpetrated against women had given rise to the kind of effrontery that transcended the frontiers of moral decadence in the country.
“We are dismayed that this criminality was executed by persons expected to provide national leadership in the not-too-distant future,” they stated.
They indicated that sexual violence against women was reprehensible and a criminal offence under the statutes.
“It, therefore, behoves the government, as a signatory to international human rights law statutes, to ensure justice is done to the victim,” they said.
While commending the university authorities for taking proactive measures to bring the perpetrators to book, they also called on the Students Representative Council (SRC) to set up a security committee to follow up on the case.
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