Panty shoplifters’ coerced-crawling “shameful” – Vicky Hammah

Former Deputy Communications Minister Victoria Hammah says it is a “shame” that three young ladies were made to crawl the length and breadth of a shop within the Accra Mall as punishment for shoplifting.

A video of the “barbaric” ordeal is all over social media. The girls are seen crawling, under duress, through the Mr Price shop in the full glare of scores of onlookers who yelled and screamed at them.

They allegedly stole panties on Tuesday. The incident has been condemned by human rights activists including the Vice President of the Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) and Legislator Ursula Owusu.

Ms Hammah, who has been hibernating for the past few months following her dismissal by President John Mahama in connection with the vikileaks saga, broke her silence Tuesday when she joined the condemnation fray on her facebook page.

She wrote: “This week has awakened Ghana to another horrid story of gender-based violence. A young woman was stripped naked in the Northern Region of Ghana, and three women were [made to crawl] at the Accra Mall allegedly for stealing”.

According to her, “these two incidences which witnessed young Ghanaian women subjected to assault and public humiliation is an unfortunate reflection of the endemic reality of violence against women in our society”.

“These two isolated incidences is a shame and must be condemned by all right thinking Ghanaians! The abuse of one woman is an abuse to all women!”