WAJU Records 842 Cases of Domestic Violence in First Quarter

May 9, 2005 - (Public Agenda) The Women and Juvenile Unit of the Ghana Police Service, (WAJU), handled a total of 842 cases for the first quarter of this year, according to a quarterly report released last week.

The report indicates that women continue to be in the majority of the victims of domestic violence, even though more men are now putting shyness aside and coming up with cases of their wives bashing them.

Out of this number, assault cases ranked high with the figure standing at 421 as at the end of March. In January, assault cases stood at 162, February 122 while March recorded 137.

The second highest case recorded by the unit for the first quarter is defilement with the figure 94. This involves grown ups who have sexual intercourse with minors or children below 18 years.

Cases of threat came third with 85 complaints lodged at WAJU. Abduction cases, which involves keeping a minor and having sex with her recorded 35.

The fifth highest recorded case was rape with the figure at 33 indicating a reduction.

A breakdown of this figure shows that, in January 14 cases of rape were handled by the unit, 12 in February and 7 in March. Thirty-two cases of parents and guardians who to fail to supply basic necessities of health and life were recorded.

The unit received 31 cases of stealing for the period under review.

Nine cases of children exposed to harm were reported to the unit. Just a case each of child abandonment, incest, child stealing, bigamy and compulsion of marriage was received by the unit within the same period, with the latter being predominant among the Muslim community.

Four cases each of criminal abortion, attempted abortion, attempted rape and unlawful ejection complaints were lodged at WAJU. Two cases each of unnatural canal knowledge, canal knowledge of female idiot and intermeddling with property of a deceased were received at the unit.

In an interview with Public Agenda, the Station Officer of WAJU, Madam Rita Narh, noted that the rate of complaints lodged at the unit for the first quarter was higher compared to last year.

This she attributed to the extensive public education by the unit. "There is no doubt that people are beginning to know their rights".

She however, expressed concern about the situation where women currently threaten to report men to the unit at the least opportunity. She cautioned the women not to abuse the role of the unit. Madam Narh urged the men to also make judicious use of the unit by reporting cases as soon as possible, as some of them have been doing already.

In Madam Narh's opinion, the unit receives long list of complaints, particularly assault cases due to failure by young girls to wait for the necessary marriage rites to be performed on them, before they get involved with a man and get pregnant.

"Imagine someone sleeping on the pavement who gets pregnant with a driver's mate who sleeps in a car. Obviously they are unable to make ends meet, let alone cater for a child. And this often result in exchanges leading to assault upon confrontation".

Secondly, she said there seem to be a breakdown of moral upbringing because children are exposed so much to technological advancement such as watching all kinds of movies/films on television, even at odd hours.

Madam Narh explained that out of curiosity, these children are tempted to try or experience whatever they see. Again, she said certain names and advertisement on some aphrodisiacs in the media connotes negative implications, which makes the children curious.

She called on the churches especially to be involved in the fight for better human rights.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200505091336.html