"Sentence rapists to life imprisonment"

Miss Joyce Nyamadie, Nkoranza district director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), has called for the maximum sentence of life imprisonment for rapists to curb the increasing cases of rape and defilement.

Addressing a forum to educate the people of Fiema and Boabeng on human rights, she said such a sentence would deter those who would like to commit the crime.

The participants were taken through topics including child sexual abuse, dangers and penalty and measures to reverse the trend.

She said the Women and Juvenile Unit (WAJU) of the Police Service, in Accra, recorded 107 defilement cases between January and August last year, adding that, "almost every day there are media reports of rape and defilement cases".

Miss Nyamadie deplored the attitude of parents who demand money from men who defile their daughters to "settle the matter at home" and asked them to stop the practice.

She advised them to provide the needs of their children since their neglect could especially lead girls into immoral lives, which could make them "fall prey to unscrupulous men".

Girls should also refuse gifts and money and be weary of men especially those who would lure them into their rooms, she said adding that, they should also report defilement cases for the arrest and prosecution of offenders.

Miss Nyamadie appealed to the government to provide the police and WAJU in particular and the courts with vehicles and other facilities to enable them to be more effective.

The Assemblyman, Mr Edward Opoku and the Headmaster Anglican Junior Secondary School, Mr Adu Darko suggested that the operations of WAJU should be decentralised to the district level to facilitate speedy prosecution of sexual abuse and related cases.