General News of Friday, 3 July 2009

Source: Daily Guide

Housemistress sells girls for sex

Jennifer Kwakye, Housemistress of Victory Senior High School at Asokwa, Kumasi, is in hot waters, having allegedly enticed female students of the school to engage in illicit commercial sex.

The accused was said to have been engaged in brisk sex business in which she provided visitors to a nearby guest house with female students under her care, pocketing huge sums of money in the process.

The housemistress was said to have been involved in the abominable act for sometime now until luck finally eluded her last week when she was eventually nabbed by the Zongo Police in Kumasi.

Jennifer Kwakye and her male friend, Johnson Kelly, who allegedly patronized the shameful act, were detained by the police for two days before they were granted police enquiry bail.

Two girls were initially said to have fallen prey to the housemistress’ alleged misdeeds, but unconfirmed reports stated that more of such girls who were above 18 years were also involved but were feeling shy to come out.

The girls, according to reports, were helped by the housemistress to scale walls to spend the night with their male guests in a nearby guest house.

There had been uneasy calm in the school and the entire Asokwa neighbourhood at large ever since the illegal act, which was done under the cover of darkness, was unearthed, Daily Guide gathered.

When Daily Guide stormed the school’s premises on Thursday, the campus was very quiet as the students were said to be on mid-term break. However, a few officials were seen stunned by the calamity that had befallen their fast growing school.

Meanwhile, the paper gathered that police had intensified their investigations and might in no time come to the end of the nagging issue which had become the focal point of discussion in Kumasi and its environs.

Speaking in an interview, the Zongo Divisional Police Commander, ACP George Mensah, said investigations were ongoing, pointing out that so far, no acts of sex trade had been established.

He described the victims who were over 18 years, as ‘very bad girls’ who after the conclusion of the issue, ought to be ousted from the school to serve as deterrent to other girls.

The police capo maintained that apart from the two girls said to be involved, no other girl from the school had reported to the police that she was part of the condemnable act.

He advised that any student of the school who was a victim of the act should immediately lodge a complaint with the police and desist from making unfounded allegations in the media.

When contacted for his side of the story, Mr. Kofi Kyei, Headmaster of the school, distanced his outfit from the said unholy acts, pointing out; “We even sent the housemistress and the other man to the police when the news broke”.

The school, he emphatically stated, was formed on Christian principles with a motto, ‘Character and Competence’, insisting he was saddened that such a calamity had befallen his school.

He stated that besides their lectures, the students of the school were always taught Christian ideologies so as to enable them become useful citizens in future.

Though he described the act as an allegation, he was quick to state that the school would not hide anything and would totally support the police to uncover the whole truth of the matter to pave way for the erring parties to be punished according to the law.

Mr. Kofi Kyei said the school, formed six years ago, had over the years produced some ardent men of God, promising that despite this calamity, the authorities would continue to be strict.

He promised to deal with the housemistress sternly if she was found culpable after police investigations, urging parents and students to calm down as his outfit was totally in control of the situation.

Earlier, one of the girls allegedly engaged in the sex act, told Citi FM: “I had financial difficulty and someone took me to see the Housemistress, who told me she liked me very much.

“She took me to a guest house called Sojar Guest House where two men gave her a package and she left. The men tried to forcibly have sex with us, but we bolted,” she narrated.