Francis Xavier SosuA human rights lawyer and Ghana’s representative on the International Association of People’s Lawyers, Francis Xavier Sosu, has urged the National President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Tony Forson, to step aside for investigations into allegations of rape against him to begin. A Canada-based Ghanaian lawyer, Kuukua Andam, claimed in a Facebook post that she has filed a criminal complaint in Washington DC against the GBA boss for raping her in a hotel room in 2012. The GBA president, through his lawyers Beyuo and Co, has denied the allegations, describing them as “palpably false”. But Mr Sosu is of the view that the allegations put Mr. Forson in a bad light, for which reason he must step aside for investigations to commence. “Clearly, these allegations put him in a very very bad situation that I believe the most appropriate thing to do will be to step aside and get the GBA itself to institute investigations into this matter,” he said on 3FM’s Midday News on Wednesday. He noted that the allegations are particularly more serious because of the personalities involved. “Sexual allegations are serious allegations and this is not an allegation being made by any busy body. I mean this is another lawyer making these allegations and they are talking about the head of the Bar in Ghana in his capacity dealing with the Bar, maintaining the integrity of the Bar, dealing with other partners, international partners, dealing with the General Legal Council which is responsible for the discipline of lawyers and so on and so forth,” he argued. Ms Andam’s allegation Ms Andam in her Facebook post, which has been pulled down, said she had been in a relationship with Mr. Forson for a while before she moved to the US to pursue her masters’ degree programme. She said they stayed in touch via phone and emails and that at a point in time she contacted Mr Forson for help because she was struggling to fend for herself and fund her education. She claimed that Mr Forson booked a hotel room, and although she knew at the point that the meeting would end in sex, she was willing to do so than drop out of school. She stated, however, that she planned to have sex with Mr Forson with a condom but it happened that he did not carry a condom with him. According to Ms Andam, realising that there was no condom, she asked Mr Forson to allow her to go and get a condom “but he pinned me down and raped me”. “He told me to meet him at a hotel in Washington DC for the rent money. It was close to school exams but I went anyway. Remember that at this time we hadn’t actually had sex but I told myself that I would just close my eyes & do it with a condom (because I knew he was sleeping with many women) & then at least I wouldn’t have to drop out of school. “As soon as I settled in, he asked for sex. I had already psyched myself up and so I asked him whether he had a condom. When he said no, I pleaded with him to allow me to at least go get a condom but he pinned me down & raped me… At one point I began to wince from pain because I wasn’t ready & he had forced himself on me but that didn’t stop him. Not even the tears that began to fall out of the corne[r]s of my eyes stopped him,” she narrated. Source: editors.3news.com|Ghana
