Former Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Bampoe Addo says the act of flogging publicly two lovers who were seen in a leaked sex video shared on social media in front of Wa Naa’s Palace is an indication of insecurity in the country.
The Human Right Lawyer said the police are mandated to deal with criminality in the country so if the community had any believe that what they did was a criminal act, they should have handed the lovers over to the police to deal with them instead of taken them though such humiliation.
The two were paraded at the forecourt of the Wa Naa’s Palace on Tuesday, May 31, 2022), and lashed by a group.
A video of the incident, which happened on Tuesday afternoon, has been shared on social media.
The girl and boy had been seen having sex in a leaked video. The video had a date stamp of May 29 [Sunday].
This did not go down well with some youth, who picked them up Tuesday, tied them to a pole at the forecourt of the Wa Naa’s Palace and flogged them publicly.
Reacting to the flogging on 3FM’s Sunrise hosted by Alfred Ocansey on Wednesday, Nana Oye Bampoe Addo explained that “this is a symptom of growing insecurity in Ghana”.
“People took the law into their hands with impunity. The community and people have taken the law into their own hands. Why wasn’t the first reaction to report to the police? I condemned it and all well-meaning Ghanaians should condemn it”.
Nana Oye Bampoe Addo said “I would have expected the police should have issue a statement, some arrest should have been made and I have a concerned that, as a traditional leader, it happened right in front of his Palace. What did the traditional authority do when they saw this happening? This is a symbolism of unconstitutional act occurring in front of the palace of a well-respected traditional leader in Ghana. Why didn’t the Palace attendance step in to stop it when they saw this happening?” Why didn’t they call the police to come and address it?”
The former Minister said “beyond the Wa Naa issuing a statement, what is he going to do?”
“These have implications. What happened was unconstitutional, it is against human dignity, if they had any reason to believe that it was a criminal, they should have hand them over to the policed”.
Taking of laws into individual hands
Nana Oye Bampoe Addo added that the police must wake to deal with occurrences where people always take the laws into their own hands.
“This is one too many. We are haven too many acts of community and people taken the laws into their hands. We should have heard from the Ministry of Gender by now. We should hear from CHRAJ. We should hear from the Waa Naa, but specifically, we should here from the government and the police”.
She explained that “it violates the right of the two citizens and the perpetrators have committed an offence and they need to be brought to book”.
“We need to send a strong signal across Ghana that these acts are criminal and will not be tolerated in Ghana. Communities and individuals cannot take the laws into their own hands and flog citizens of Ghana to humiliation”.
By Kweku Antwi-Otoo|3news.com|Ghana