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Following a leaked video on social media some days ago in which a uniformed pupil of a Basic School at Effiduase in the Eastern Region alleged that she was sexually assaulted, the Human Rights Advocacy Centre, (HRAC), says it has begun investigations into the matter.
HRAC in a statement said its fact-finding team visited the area on Tuesday and interviewed the victim.
In the 5mins and 34secs video which was first uploaded on Facebook, the class 3 pupil, (Name withheld), was heard speaking to a group of young men believed to be friends of the perpetrator.
She alleged the perpetrator had both vaginal and anal sex with her.
Narrating the incident, she said the gentleman, who met her around a drinking spot, lured her into his house with a promise of giving her GHC10.
The gentleman then had sex with her, after which he gave her GHC2 and disappeared.
As part of the organisation’s efforts to investigate the case to ensure justice for the abused girl, the HRAC team visited the girl’s school, where the Headmaster confirmed that she is a pupil admitted under the Education for the Intellectual Disabled (EID) programme of the Ghana Education Service.
The headmaster together with some teachers of the school and the Assemblyman of the area led the HRAC team and other interested Civil Society Organisations to the house of the pupil.
The team, after further interrogation with the girl, proceeded to the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Eastern Regional Police Service, to lodge a formal complaint.
“HRAC finds this video very appalling, inhumane and a total disregard for basic human rights. Additionally, sexual exploitation of the victim (name withheld), is in contravention to Section 102 of the Criminal Code, 1960 (ACT 29) of Ghana, which clearly states that, whoever has carnal knowledge or has unnatural carnal knowledge of any idiot, imbecile or a mental patient in or under the care of a mental hospital whether with or without his or her consent, in circumstances which prove that the accused knew, at the time of the commission of the offence, that the person had a mental incapacity commits an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less than five or more than twenty-five years.”
The facts of the case according to HRAC reveal that the victim is mentally incapacitated; and therefore there is the need to invoke this and other related legal provisions in order to protect her.
The Executive Director of HRAC, George Owoo, called on the public to desist from spreading the video to protect the victim.
“We would also want to call on the general public to exercise restraint in sharing this video, in the good spirit of protecting this minor from further public ridicule and scorn.
We also want to assure the general public that, the Human Rights Advocacy Centre will pursue this case relentlessly, until justice is served”, he stressed.
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By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AfanyiDadzie
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