My daughter had been raped, I was desperate for money - Assaulted nursing mother speaks

We’ve been updating you about the story of a woman who was brutalized by a policeman who was acting as a guard at the Midland Savings and Loans. The woman has been identified as Osafo Patience, a mother of two and aged 36.

After the video of her being brutalized went viral on Social media, many people have been wanting to know more about what really happened. The woman was exclusively interviewed by UTV and she shared her side of the story.

Ghbase.com monitored the interview that was also streamed on Facebook and we share with you the facts we gathered from the interview.

1. The woman is known as Patience Osafo, a mother of two and 36 years of age. Her firstborn is a girl who is 17 years old and the second one is 9 years old.

2. Her firstborn, who is 17 years old was raped at the age of 16 and she had to give birth. So the baby she was holding in the video is her grandchild who is about 2 months and some weeks old. Her 17-year-old daughter is also epileptic.

3. She is a petty trader who sells candies at Spanner (the footbridge at the Accra Mall) and started saving with the Midland Savings and Loans two months ago, with hopes of getting a loan from them in the future to be able to expand her business.



4. She said in the interview that, she had gone to the bank last week Friday to get part of her savings with them to enable her buy more baby food for her grandchild but the bank told her the network was down and asked her to come the following Monday. She went on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and she was met with the same excuse that the network was down and she couldn’t get her money. Then she went there again yesterday, Thursday, 19th July 2018

5. The incident happened on Thursday,19th July 2018. She was at the bank as early 7:30am, with hopes that they can serve her when they opened only to be told the network was down, so she decided to wait up until 4pm because she needed the money desperately to buy food for her grandchild, pay for a 30ghc loan she took from someone who paid for her second born to be able to write exams and also be able to re-stock her toffies.

6. After waiting several hours, she decided to step outside the banking hall to get some fresh air as the Air-condition inside was too much for the baby, and so was hanging around, only for her to be told at 4pm that, the bank had closed, so she should go home.

7. She then approached the police and asked him to help her beg the bank give her a part of the money because she desperately needs cash as she’s been chasing it since last week Friday. She said the police only came back minutes later with anger and asked her to leave and that the bank had ordered him to walk her out. She insisted she was not going to leave until she gets her money as she’s been waiting the whole day and that was when the police started attacking her physically.



8. She had a total sum of 270ghc in savings with Midland Savings & Loans and was requesting at least 100ghc if they cannot give her the full amount. The woman also revealed that she’s lost both parents and has no one she could rely on for assistance and she couldn’t leave the bank because she had to buy food for the baby.

9. She said after she had been beaten several times but the police, and thrown out, the management of the bank then came out to beg her to forget about the incident and then handed over the total amount of 270ghc to her. According to her, she cried and asked the bank, why the refused to give her the money this whole time and only waited for her to be beaten before deciding to give her, her own money after she had even explained her predicament to them.

10. She disclosed that she didn’t report the matter to a police station because she had no money and also she had not been able to go to the hospital for checkup because she has no money although she feels pains in her body after all those assaults from the police officer. She also added that she was hit with the gun of the policeman at some point, but it was not captured in the video making rounds.



This woman’s story is a sad one and she needs to get justice. We are also asking the Women and Gender Ministry to open investigations to the rape of her 17-year-old epileptic daughter. This is a woman who has no education or anyone to rely on and has gone through a lot in life. It was disheartening watching her tell her story on UTV yesterday. She said she stays in a Kiosk she rents and pays Ghc40 a month as rent fee. The father of her epileptic daughter abandoned her because he said, she couldn’t be with someone like that and blamed the condition of their daughter of her family saying, it is an heridertary disease from her family.

Share this story so those who missed the interview can know the woman’s side of the story.

Watch the video below: