A military officer at Burma Camp in Accra has been arraigned before an Accra Circuit Court for subjecting her 12-year-old house help to torture, resulting in countless old and fresh scars on various parts of the small girl’s body.
The soldier, Alberta Kweku, a mother of two, is said to have on countless occasions subjected the minor to severe torture with all sorts of materials, including metal ladle, metal chairs and military belt.
She is also alleged to have on some occasions kicked the victim with her heavy boots, reportedly leaving the victim in distress and limping.
She was reported to the military police by another military officer at the barracks who saw the victim struggling to walk as a result of the torture and with multiple scars and bruises on her body.
She was hauled before the court on two counts of physical abuse and causing harm.
She pleaded not guilty to all the charges and her lawyer prayed the court to grant her bail.
The court, presided over by Abena Oppong Adjin-Doku, who considered the fact that the accused person is a nursing mother, granted her bail in the sum of GH¢20,000 with two sureties and adjourned the case to March 13, 2018.
DSP Adolphine Dzansi, presenting the facts of the case, told the court that the complainant is Francis Opoku, a military officer at the Burma Camp.
She said the victim was brought to the house by the accused person’s husband to help her take care of their two children.
She told the court that the military woman’s husband travelled to Sudan in March 2017 for a peacekeeping mission and the accused had since subjected the victim to the ordeal.
DSP Dzansi indicated that any time the victim made a mistake, the accused would use all kinds of objects to hit her and that resulted in multiple bruises and scars on various parts of her body.
She stated that on January 2, 2018, the victim was sleeping in a room when the accused person saw her child crawling there.
“The accused person became angry, took a metallic folder chair which was in the room and hit the victim several times, resulting in swollen forehead, head and bruises and scars on the head. Not satisfied, she used her military belt to hit the victim and she sustained assault marks all over her body,” the prosecutor told the court.
DSP Dzansi added that the complainant on January 14, 2018 saw the victim looking malnourished with a baby at her back and approached her.
She said the victim narrated her ordeal to the complainant who in turn reported the matter to the Military Police and the victim rushed to the Kpeshie Medical Centre for treatment.
By Gibril Abdul Razak