'Our school girls are now mothers because of Pragya riders' - Queen Mother of Adantia

Correspondence from Bono Region

The Adantia community, a town within the Sunyani West Municipal Assembly of the Bono Region, seems to have a social threat of high teenage pregnancies of late.

This worrying rise in teenage pregnancies in the Bono Region, continues to affect a larger number of school-going girls who, as a result of this increasing trend, have to truncate their basic education and subsequently abandoned their dreams of academic persuit.

According to sources, the Adantia community, which has been flooded by Pragya riders, as a result of its poor road network, has witnessed an unprecedented rise in the number of teenage pregnancies within the last year.

Nana Akosua Derkyi, the Queen Mother of Adantia Traditional Area, in an interview with Ghanaweb on Friday, March 5, 2021, bewailed and bemoaned on the sudden increment in teenage pregnancies in her traditional area.

The Queen Mother of Adantia Traditional Area, who was visibly disturbed by this trend, attributed this worrying situation to the surge in Pragya riders in the community for the past year.

Nana Akosua Derkyi said ''the insurgence of Pragya in this community has been the bane of the rise in teenage pregnancies''. This, according to the queen mother, ''has been a major social threat to schoolgirls in her community''.

The queen mother further stated that ''our school girls who are supposed to be in school are now mothers because of Pragya riders''. To the queen mother, ''the Pragya riders enticed these innocent school girls with money and consumable items such as indomie and fried rice''.

Maame Akosua Manu, a parent, whose schoolgirl was a victim of teenage pregnancy last year, expressed great concern on the activities of Pragya riders and the dangers on school girls in the community. ''My daughter could not write her final exams with her classmates and has now dropped out of school''. Maame Akosua Manu added that ''my dream of seeing my daughter become a nurse has been shattered because of a Pragya rider''.

A junior high school teacher at Adantia M/A JHS, narrated how school girls at the JHS continue to frequently absented themselves from school for which, some of them subsequently dropout from school in the end. He appealed to the traditional area and the elders of the community, to come out with by-laws to punish whoever impregnates a schoolgirl in the community.

In what seems to be a sharp contrast of the claim levelled against Pragya riders, Mr Emmanuel Asante, chairman of Pragya Riders Association, described the allegation to Ghanaweb as a ''mere accusation without any proof of evidence''. Mr Emmanuel Asante said ''though most riders stay outside Adantia, members of the association has a by-law that bars them to work after 10:00 in the evening''.

To the chairman, the community has to look beyond Pragya drivers as there are other workers and people who, might have contributed to the increase in teenage pregnancies in the Adantia community.