Otiko Afisa Djaba
MINISTER OF Gender, Children and Social Protection, Otiko Afisa Djaba, has admonished family members of the defiled four-year-old girl to be calm as her ministry is poised to ensure that justice prevails.
She was worried that matters of defilement and rape are becoming too many, warning that it would not be accommodated, especially under her administration as gender minister.
The minister appealed to the community where the incident took place to assist the investigative authorities to unravel the facts of the matter for the law to take its course.
Almost two weeks ago, a four-year-old girl was reportedly defiled by a teenager who hails from a village called Assin Adadientem. The suspect was said to be a relative of the chief of the town and so the latter reportedly tried to cover up the crime and allegedly threatened the little girl’s family if it took the matter up.
Father of the victim, Kwabena Nyarko, asserted that his daughter had been complaining of pain in her private part; and when she was being bathed, she mentioned the name of the suspect. The intrusion into her private part was later confirmed by doctors of the Assin Fosu Government Hospital, following a police medical report form issued for the victim to go for a medical check-up.
Madam Otiko Djaba, who visited the victim at Assin on Sunday,
presented an amount of GH¢1,500 and some toiletries to the girl’s family. Earlier in a statement, the minister strongly condemned the alleged defilement.
She indicated, “I have directed officers of the Department of Social Welfare and the Children’s Department of my ministry to visit the victim and her family to ascertain the facts about her welfare for necessary action to be taken.”
The statement pointed out, “The defilement of any child is horrifying, traumatic and unacceptable…I strongly condemn what has happened in no uncertain terms since it violates the fundamental human rights and dignity of this innocent girl.”
By Vincent Kubi