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Child Rights International (CRI) has described as ‘shameful’, the determination of the guilt or otherwise of an accused individual in a defilement case by gods.
“Tradition does not have so much role to play when it comes to criminal matters, and defilement is criminal, therefore, it doesn’t need any god whatsoever to determine whether you can exonerate the person or not.
“It is a shame that at this level that we are, and being the first country to ratify the UN convention on the right of the child, and having a lot of legislation that protect children, we should not be hearing some of these things at all,” Executive Director of CRI, Bright Appiah, told Class FM’s Kwesi Parker-Wilson on Wednesday, October 25.
Mr Appiah was reacting to a defilement case at Adadientem, close to Assin Fosu in the Central Region on October 14, 2017.
The victim, a 4-year-old girl, is unable to stand or walk as the criminal act has affected her health.
Mother of the victim, Monica Nyarko, first reported to the chief of the community, however, the accused, whom the little girl gave his name as Kwabena, who lives in the community, was declared innocent.
His innocence, according to the chief, was the response of the gods hence, the inability to have the culprit punished.
For CRI, the development is sad and worrying, declaring the readiness of CRI to support if the “family is ready to pursue the case”.
