16-year-old JHS student eloped into marriage

A 16-year-old Junior High School (JHS) student (name withheld) has eloped into marriage at Sumborun in the Sissala East District of the Upper West Region.

Marriage by elopement is an outmoded customary practice, among some ethnic groups within the three regions of the north.

The victims are mostly school girls of between 13 and 18 years who are forcibly removed from school and dragged to their husbands whom they sometimes do not know.

But in this according to Balu Mohammed of Tumu-based Radford Fm, she was eloped from Challu another farming community only for her mother to report the matter to authorities in order rescue her daughter from the scourge of early marriage

It is gathered that the lady in question insisted on going ahead with the marriage until officials of the Ghana Education Service intervened and persuaded her to go back to school.

The Municipal District director of Education Mr. Leonard Annanobaala has appealed to parents to show more responsibility towards their children by providing their needs rather than pushing them into early marriages.

Child marriage in the Sissala area is a serious problem affecting the smooth education of most adolescents despite efforts by NGOs and government agencies to curb it.