Auntie Roasts Girl, 9 Over Senseless Excuse

The buttocks of a nine-year-old girl in Koforidua, the Eastern regional capital has been burnt with a hot iron and the head hit several times against a wall by her auntie for delaying to return a GH�100.00 debt she was sent to collect. The auntie, popularly known in the area as Asana, is yet to be arrested after torturing the innocent girl over such senseless excuse. Though the family of the victim has lodged a complaint at the Domestic Violence and victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service in Koforidua, no arrest has taken place. The victim�s parents live at Nkurakan, near Koforidua; however, she lives with the Auntie at Koforidua Zongo. Narrating her ordeal to the Daily Heritage, the victim explained that last Friday, she was sent by her Auntie, Asana, a business-woman, to collect GH�100.00 owed her by her client in the evening. According to the victim, when she got to the place the client was not around so she had to wait until the client came and gave her money to her. She said upon her return to the house, the auntie got very furious for keeping long. The victim said, though she explained the reason for the delay, the auntie pulled her down, removed her dress, sealed the mouth with cello tape and under coercion, burnt the buttocks of the victim with very hot electric iron. According to the victim, she was left to her fate without any medical attention until two days later when medicine was applied on the wound. A Good Samaritan spotted the victim and upon interrogation narrated her ordeal. The Good Samaritan reported the case to the father of the victim, one Abass, who later sent the sister to where the incident occurred, but the suspect was reluctant to allow anyone to speak to the victim. The father of the victim, Abass, later told Daily Heritage at the family house at Nkurakan during a meeting of some of the family members that, several attempts made to get the victim back to her biological parents had proven futile. He said the suspect opted to treat the case as a family issued. The reporter after hearing this advised the parents of the victim to make a complaint at DOVVSU which was obliged. At DOVVSU, a family member of the suspect who came to the police station later with the victim, after being ordered to produce the victim, told the police during interrogation that, the victim was escaping punishment attempted on her by the Auntie and in the process fell on hot iron and got burnt. The officer interrogated the victim in the presence of the family member of the suspect; hence, she was afraid to say the truth; instead she rather strangely confirmed what the family member of the suspect said. As a result, the police officer said there was nothing they could do again since it was an accident, without bothering to undertake any further investigations. Not satisfied with the interrogation by the police officer, the reporter took the victim to the office of the Regional Boss of DOVVSU, DSP Eunice Annor who personally interrogated the victim. During the interrogation, the victim told DSP Annor that, the suspect and the family coached her on what to say during the initial interrogation. After listening to the ordeal of the victim and observing the degree of injury of the victim, she ordered for a case to be made for the arrest of the suspect for prosecution which is yet to be done.