Gang rape: Asokwa MP condemned for proposing flogging for suspects

A Gender Activist, Esther Tawiah is demanding an apology from the Member of Parliament for Asokwa in the Ashanti region, Patricia Appiagyei, for proposing lashes for the seven boys implicated in the recent Bantama alleged gang rape incident instead of a jail term.

According to her, sentencing the boys captured in a video recording gang-raping a minor will jeopardize their future hence her proposal for them to be lined up and flogged publicly.

“One of the things that could have urged the young ones to indulge in this kind of sodomy as I call it is either they were under the influence of alcohol or were on drugs.

“But like I said, they are showing their wild edge, they have started having feelings and therefore were examining their feelings and directed it [there] because they don’t have the right parental care to tell them that there are certain things that we don’t do in our society.

“I don’t think we have to waste time to get them arrested, you know they are minors and…I don’t think prison will change them. It even hardens them because we don’t have the kind of atmosphere where people can really reflect and then show remorse for what they have done…but when you are publicly punished I believe that will make you better…I believe [flogging] them will help,” the former Kumasi Mayor told Starr News’ Parliamentary correspondent Ibrahim Alhassan.

However, the Gender Activist, Esther Tawiah in an interview with Starr News, said the comments of the MP are unfortunate and will open the floodgates for similar abuses, hence the comments must be retracted.

“Seriously, lashing in public? what community service do we have in our country that is so serious for people to say that I’ve done this I feel I’m not going to do that again. The thing that comes to my mind is like so even if someone does this to me, at the end of the day all that they’ll say is that let the person to be punished and it’s normal. Other men will think that it’s normal to treat women this way and just go Scot free because they’ll say they’re juvenile, these days children are stubborn. I think that she(MP) has to apologize for her statement, what she said is bad. She should come out and say I’m sorry for my comment, as a woman I’ve had a second thought about the comments I’ve made and I feel it’s wrong for me t say these thing and I’m sorry.”