Twenty-seven prostitutes, including students of the Takoradi Polytechnic who were rounded up in a police swoop on Monday have been granted bail by a Circuit Court.
They were granted a GH¢13,500.00 bail with one surety each to reappear on April 30, 2014.
The Police arrested the prostitutes at different locations in Takoradi and have charged them with prostitution, a criminal offence under Section 279 of the Criminal Code 1960 (Act 29) and as amended by Act 554 (section 15).
The court has also issued a bench warrant for the arrest of six other girls facing the same charges but who failed to appear before the court.
According to the Western Regional Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Olivia Ewurabena Adiku, the suspects were arrested upon intelligence available to the police.
Prostitution is criminal
ASP Adiku explained that Section 279 of the Criminal Code 1960 (Act 29) as amended by Act 554 (section 15) was clear that it is criminal for any person to offer his or her body commonly for acts of lewdness (sex) payment.
She also explained that Section 275 of the same Act also stated that any person who in any public place persistently solicits or importunes to obtain clients for any prostitute or for any other immoral purpose shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Police officers
According to ASP Adiku, police officers were deployed to arrest the women and other wayfarers soliciting for the purposes of prostitution.
She said even though they were arrested in the act, they were screened to ensure that they were arrested for the offence they were being charged with.
ASP Adiku said it was during the screening that some were identified as polytechnic students.
In November last year she said the police carried out a similar swoop, which led to the arrest of 23 prostitutes who were later granted bail because many of them were lactating mothers who left their babies at home to engage in prostitution at night.
She said the current surge in prostitution had resulted in the harassment of revelers at night in the Twin-City of Sekondi/Takoradi.
Members of the public, she said, were free to enter any entertainment joints in the metropolis to relax and that the attitudes of these prostitutes were reprehensible.
Aggressive, persuasive approach by Prostitutes
She said the complaints include the aggressive and persuasive approach by these commercial sex workers, which was causing lots of embarrassment to the public.
When the Daily Graphic moved through the metropolis at night to confirm the claim of the police, it was clear that the street corners had been taking over by the prostitutes.
Some of the hotspots were the frontage of Shippers Roundabout, Old Axim Road where prostitutes openly call clients.
Some residents told the Daily Graphic they were not surprised that some of those arrested were students since their looks where obvious that these were decent but greedy young women leading double lives as students and as commercial sex workers.
The police have meanwhile promised to sustain the swoop to bring some decency to the metropolis for revelers to enjoy their night-life devoid of harassment.