Police raids a brothel at Ho

Ho, April 2, GNA - The Ho Municipal Police on Wednesday raided a popular drinking bar called "The eye of the youth" at Adablakordzi at Ho-Bankoe and arrested two women suspected of engaging in commercial sex.

Also arrested was the owner of the spot whose names were being withheld. The three have been remanded in police custody awaiting prosecution.

A police source at the Municipal Police Station told the GNA that police raided the spot after several months of surveillance on activities of women and girls there.

The source said majority of the suspects escaped.

The two women arrested had bruises and swollen faces. Local media attention had focused on the goings-on at the drinking spot for some time now especially in relation to commercial sex.

A woman who lives across the street from the bar told the GNA when it visited a few days after the police swoop that quite a number of women lurked inside and around the bar as prostitutes. She said there were five women whom she could identify as the nucleus of the cycle.

The woman pointed to a two-room apartment with the inscription " Tourists club - Psalm 96 verse 3" adjacent to her house where the alleged prostitutes entertain their clients besides other rooms attached to the bar.

Mr Israel Pentem, a radio presenter who attends a church close by the spot, appealed to the police to close down the spot because the owner had been arrested several times but business went on even in his absence.

He said because of the operation, criminals were always around the area, which put the lives of people in the community at risk.

"We are not safe at all, different kinds of people come around there and even those of us who attend church do so at a big risk and we want the Police to close down the place because the practice is illegal", Mr Pentem said.

Mr Barnabas Addin, Volta Regional Director of Social Welfare, said there had been some influx of girls from outlying villages into the Ho Municipality lately, many of them seeking pleasure and others for survival.