Jailed Without Evidence …The Agony Of Godwin Agyei At Nsawam Prison

The Chief Justice, Sophia Akufo, has been petitioned to investigate the circumstances the led to the imprisonment of Godwin Agyei, without proper legal trial and evidence.

The lad has been at the Nsawam Maximum Security Prison for two years after he was accused of rape and sentenced for 18 years.

Investigations conducted by the New Crusading Guide indicate that the accused person, Godwin Agyei, a Tailor by profession was arrested by the Police at his work place at Agbogbloshie for allegedly raping a five year old girl in 2015.

It is alleged that when he was arrested the Police took him into custody and subsequently brought him back to the community to ask the community members whether he (accused) really committed the offence which they answered yes. He was then taken back into custody and tortured to confirm that he had raped the small girl.

Investigations indicate that he insisted that he was innocent but his plea was ignored. Indications are the young girl was never taken to hospital or clinic for any examination to prove whether she was raped or not and there was no medical report at the time indicating that she had been raped.

According to the family, the accusation was designed to extort money from the young man but the case turned into something else leading to his imprisonment

According to the Young man who spoke to the New Crusading Guide in an interview from the Nsawam Prison, the Police Officer,(name withheld then wrote his statement and added guilty to it and then sent him to a Judge where he was sentenced immediately to 18 years with hard labour. He said he was sentenced without any legal representation in a country that boasts of promoting rule of law, human rights and Justice.

The interesting aspect is that whiles in prison authorities realized that he did not deserve the sentence so his years were reduced to 12.

The Family of Godwin Agyei has thus appealed to the Chief, Justice, Sophia Akufo and the Minister of Justice and Attorney Gloria Akufo to launch detailed investigations into the case and free the young man from Prison.

Attached is a copy of the petition.

 
PETITION OVER WRONG IMPRISONMENT OF GODWIN AGYEI ON  FALSE ALLEGATIONS AND REQUEST FOR FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS AND HIS IMMEDIATE RELEASE

We write to petition your noble office against the unlawful imprisonment of Godwin Agyei for allegedly raping a five year old girl in 2015.

The accusation of rape leveled again the young man    in fact and in truth is false. It was a plan hatched by his enemies to punish him for refusing to meet the demands of the little girl’s family. It was more of blackmail.

We have delved into the issue and have come to the conclusion that the young man was wrongly incarcerated without the proper legal procedures. The case was not investigated at all by the CID officer at the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit Called Ranford. He only relied on hearsay that is perception to prosecute the young man. He could not prove by any evidence from a medical officer or any health center that this young man raped the young girl.

The point is that there is no evidence of rape against Godwin Agyei. All the information the Police Officer named Ranford Gathered was on hearsay, speculations and mere allegations by the people he interviewed. There was no medical report made available to the court when the young man was sent to the court. The parents of the little girl never went to the hospital to prove that their daughter was raped. This is because the investigative team has made several requests just to see a medical form attached to the compliant but they have failed to make them available.

Under normal legal circumstances, when somebody is accused of rape and arrested by the Police and sent to court, request is made to remand the accused either in Police or Prison Custody to allow detail investigations to be conducted in the case before hearing is done to ascertain the facts and the truth. In this particular case that was not done. The young man was arrested and within two days he had been sentenced to 18 years in prison. He was not even allowed to go for a Lawyer or any legal representative to defend him. The sad part of it is that his judgment was giving in close doors. In the Judges Chamber present were the prosecutor, the Judge and the accused person only. Sounds like a court in the banana republic. His sentence was later reduced to 12 years at the Nsawam Prison. The point is why would you reduce his sentence from 18 to 12 years if the authorities know that he really committed the act of rape?

When Godwin Agyei was arrested by the Police he was beaten mercilessly, brutalized and tortured by the Police officers to force him to admit that he had committed the offence when in actual fact he had not raped anybody. In spite of that he stood by his words and pleaded not guilty but the CID who wrote the charges changed his statement because he could not write.

This young man was not given the opportunity to have a family member or a relation to accompany him to the Police station or the court. This is a crime against humanity. It is against the rules of natural Justice, a total abuse of his right to legal representation.

Secondly, we have also realized that there was no medical form from the hospital indicating that the little girl in question by name Esther Teye was really raped. According to the Grand Mother of the Little girl, Martha wonyu, in an interview, at their Agbogbloshie slum, they sent the little girl to hospital for medical examination a day after the incident had happened but she could not produce any medical report from the hospital. Which hospital did she sent the girl to. She couldn’t tell. Did she accompany the girl to the hospital, she said no.  Who sent the Girl to the hospital, she said the Girls, Mother, where is the girl’s mother, she wouldn’t tell us.  On the day of our interview with her, that’s 7th July 2017, she promised to get us a copy of the medical form. Interestingly it’s been over one month now she hasn’t been able to provide the document.

The Third Point is that the arrest of Godwin Agyei was a set up by some people in the Agbogbloshie community. This poor boy was born in the area where he has lived and learnt his tailoring profession. He is a God fearing Christian who was set up by some people in the community just to punish him for refusing to be part of their unlawful practices. Godwin is married with two children. At the time of his arrest in 2015 his second born was only one month old. Up till date the boy has not been circumcised   at the age of two and half years due to financial constraints.

We believe that there was no proper trial leading to the imprisonment of this young man. We have heard, seen and read several cases of wrong imprisonment of innocent law abiding Ghanaians. For Instance, a journalist working with the Enquirer Newspaper   Felix Ensilage Nyaaba, was wrongfully accused of raping a small girl of a co tenant at Madina and was harshly sentenced by a court for three years without proper investigations, Four months later it was discovered that he did not rape as he was accused of and was released to go home. Meanwhile he had spent months in prison in pain and suffering. These and many more issues have happened that have led many innocent people being in prison.

 We are therefore requesting your office to set up a committee to conduct proper investigations into the issue of Godwin Agyei who has already spent two years in prison . We believe that the young man would be proven right after a thorough investigation has been conducted into the issue.

Very soon we shall be providing your office with video and audio recordings of our interviews with the little girl and the grandmother which will amaze you. Thank you.

The imprisonment of Godwin Agyei is regarded as the most unjust trial meted out to an innocent man. Such acts usually bring curse on the national and the masterminds of these barbaric acts.

It is amazing that after the arrest of the boy the parents of the little girl demanded that he gave them money to send the girl to the clinic and some money to settle the matter amicably and also settle the Police in order to withdraw the case from the Police station. This Godwin Agyei refused because, according to him, he hadn’t done anything wrong to pay for settlement. This is what led to his prosecution and incarceration.

We are therefore calling for the immediate release of this innocent man.

Thank You.

Esther Abena Agyei –

Mother of Victim