Group Sex, Drugs and Rape Galore Along Keta Beaches

The Chief Executive of the Keta District Assembly, Emmanuel Kwame Vorkeh, is so disturbed by the level of sexual immorality in the district that he has described what pertains along the beautiful Keta beaches, particularly during occasions, as not only an eyesore, but also as a "Sodom and Gomorrah" situation.

He has therefore called for the bye-laws against indecent exposure and immoral public acts to be tightened before sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) wipe out the entire populace in the area.

Painting a vivid picture of what takes place at night among the youth to Chronicle after an assembly session recently, the district chief executive (DCE) said, "The boys drug the girls with Valium, and after making them drowsy, engage them through several bouts of marathon, group sex in the sands between Kedzikope and Vui."

Hon.Vorkeh said he was surprised that the youth are behaving as if HIV/AIDS is a joke, adding that the assembly has a great task ahead if it wants to cope with the situation.

According to the mayor of Keta, when he addressed the assembly recently, what happened last Easter Monday was beyond description.

He said group sex was so openly practised that a woman who went to the scene, retrieved her teenage daughter from the orgy at 11.00pm and was spanking her was abused and hooted at by the young men, with some calling her primitive, uncultured and "colo".

Vorkeh further revealed that sexual promiscuity ranks third on the assembly's scale of major problems and brushes shoulders with sand winning and sanitation.

He said when a team went on a fact finding mission to some of the known citadels, condoms were littered all over the beaches, adding that since condoms do tear they cannot be licences to be promiscuous.

When asked by this reporter whether any arrests had been made, he said: "No, you see they operate under cover of darkness and go to places quite far from houses close to the shores."

Talking on the possible spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the district, he said apart from the carefree lifestyles of the youth the use of black pigs as conservancy labourers at Afiadenyigba and other places can spread STDs.

"The possible upsurge in HIV/AIDS could be the result of black pigs feeding on faecal matter with infected blood on it since it can easily be passed on through their meat," he stressed.

Commenting on the development, the executive director of Community Action, a Ho-based non-governmental organisation, Mr. Orisha Afa, said he does not think unemployment is a factor in this matter because looking at the ages of some of the teenagers involved in the acts joblessness should not be roped in as the main factor.

He however agreed that poverty can lure some girls to fall prey to the advances of the young men.

Mr. Afa said breakdown of societal values, influx of foreign cultures through watching obscene films and certain adverts contribute a lot in such matters, and advised that drastic action need to be taken because studies have shown that where the youth delay in starting sexual life the incidence of HIV/AIDS gets lower in that area.

On his part, Mr. Adolph Wanton-Danso, programme co-ordinator of Friends of Youth Health Foundation (FYHELF), cautioned that only STDs caused by bacteria are curable and hinted that the types caused by viruses can only be treated but not cured.

Apart from that he warned that Pelvic Inflammatory Diseases (PIDs) can lead to infertility in future.

The beaches of Keta are among the most wonderful tourist sites in the south-eastern part of the country, and it is the view of many that it should be preserved solely for that purpose.

Fortunately, the two MPs of the district, Hons. James Victor Gbeho and Dan Kwasi Abodakpi, were present when the startling facts were unfolded at the assembly.