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Georgina Owusu, a diminutive and frail looking young woman, has been selling cold water popularly known as iced water at various locations in Accra, to keep body and soul together, after failing to gain entry into a second cycle institution after her basic education in her native Brong Ahafo Region. On Thursday, June 23, this year, she was on her usual errand selling iced water in traffic near the Emmanuel Eye Clinic at East Legon in Accra. The task force of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) arrived on the scene at about 8:30 a.m. �Initially, they went after the boys who were selling other items. Suddenly, there appeared this man they say he is a retired army officer. He was not in uniform. I later learnt that he is the trainer of the AMA guards. The way they were chasing these poor boys around with some of the vendors losing their items in the process, was a bit worrying.� Georgina narrated her own story at the offices of The Chronicle. �I was appalled by what was happening. I murmured something to myself. I said the NDC government has not given us jobs to do, and yet they are denying us our little means of livelihood. They should know that ordinary people like us voted to put them in power. We are the people who would vote again,� she said. �Apparently, the retired army officer heard what I said. He just approached from behind, and before I could say jack, he held my bag, which was hanging on my neck, and tossed me to the ground. He started pulling me on the hard ground. I was suffocating. I pleaded with him to leave me alone. He wouldn�t. I felt like my life was being squeezed out of me. I managed to lift myself up a bit and held on to his dress,� said the young woman. �He was wearing a tie and dye dress which got torn in the process.� Georgina said she was arrested together with a number of boys and arraigned before the AMA Traffic and Sanitation Court, near the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum. �They put us in the dock and asked if we had a lawyer. We said we did not have any. We were found guilty and fined GH�600. In my case, I was told to pay an additional GH�30 to replace the man�s shirt, which got torn when he was virtually killing me,� Ms. Owusu said. According to the iced water seller, she could not pay the fine on the spot. No one even knew that she had been arrested, because all mobile phones found on them were seized. They had no other means of contacting anybody. According to Georgina Owusu, she was taken to the Ministries Police Station and kept in custody for three days, before being transferred to Nsawam. �Throughout the three days, I was never given food. Luckily, I had some coins on me � It was up to five cedis. I had to send for food with the little on me, until I was transferred to Nsawam,� said Georgina. �The manner of my arrest was so violent that I lost my slippers in the process. For the three days that I was in custody at the Ministries Police Station, I was barefooted. � According to Georgina, at Nsawam she was kitted in a prison dress, made up of a skirt and blouse, with stars all over it. �In the morning they gave us porridge without bread. In the afternoon we were given banku, gari, kenkey or rice with soup. As for fish, if one was lucky, the head of a herring would pop up. In the evenings, one had to fend for him or herself.� According to Georgina, she joined the prison workforce. In the morning she cleaned some gutters and joined other prisoners to bake bread. �I left Nsawam on July 5th, 2011, and right now, I am too scared to venture out and sell iced water. As a result, I have no money, and I am always hungry. But I cannot help it,� she concluded. The police at the Ministries Police Station confirmed yesterday that Georgina Owusu was detained at the station before being transferred to Nsawam.