A man has allegedly defiled his 12-year-old girl at Adabooribiisi, a suburb of Bongo in the Upper East region.
The 62-year-old suspect, Mohammed Abibu, allegedly defiled his biological daughter who is currently suffering from Post traumatic stress disorder.
The victim, name withheld is a basic six pupil at the Salibga Primary School in the Bongo District.
Mohammed Abibu has been remanded into Police custody and is expected to reappear before the Bongo circuit court on the 14th of July 2022.
The victim is currently under the care of the Bongo social Welfare unit and is receiving medical attention at the Bongo District Hospital.
She has suffered some injuries in her private parts and have also lost her speech after she collapsed upon seeing her father in the police custody. she is currently suffering from androphobia.
In an exclusive interview with Dr. Elizabeth Bankah with the Child Adolescent Care Department of Family Medicine at the Great Accra Regional Hospital on the ‘Word Community Watch show’, he explained that because the victim has been traumatized emotionally, physically and psychological, she now feels that anybody around her is going to harm her as her father did to her “having been subjected to this trauma by a parent who is supposed to provide safety and security for her well-being, it can be very traumatic not only is it traumatic physically, but psychologically and emotionally. So what happens is that they have what we call PST that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the child could go through a period of not wanting to talk, been so sad all the time, having strange behaviours. So it is a very serious situation”.
She however added that the reason why the victim feels terrified seeing the opposite sex and some of the female nurses ware who offer health care to her is because of the trauma. “she has been traumatized by that so any male figure she sees who is older than her represent the trauma that affected her so in a situation like that we have to be very sensitive and not force her to have to do with a male caregiver because each time she sees somebody like that she relays the trauma again and that is not fair to her, so with someone like that you’ve to be careful with her, be sensitive the patient. You cannot shout on her , you can’t force her. she needs to process the trauma, needs to find someone she can feel comfortable with and have that person be there and accompanied her with everything that goes on with her, but it is not good to force any male caregiver onto her because that male caregiver symbolized trauma”.
Dr Elizabeth noted that the victim needs a psychologist to attend to her urgently for her to recover as well as for her to regain her lost speech.
A private legal practitioner, Anthony Namoo in an interview indicated that if the suspect is found guilty, he will serve a minimum jail term of seven years if tried in the circuit court and the District court, a maximum jail term of two years, except in certain cases that the two years can be four years through an enhanced verdict.
Lawyer Anthony also noted that the suspect is presumed innocent until proven otherwise.
He added that the Bongo District court has no jurisdiction to hear the case except the higher courts.
Gaspard Ayuureneeya