Rape cases on the rise in Ghana under Akufo-Addo - Nana Oye

Former Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur has highlighted worrying reports of a rise in cases of sexual abuse in the country.

She said rape cases are on the increase under the administration of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

"Rape is a big, big issue under the current NPP government...We have an increase in rape cases," she said on Accra-based Class FM.

She said currently the "NPP government is not providing resources to address issues relating to rape, so, there’s also insecurity for women" in the country.

According to her, the NDC in government has put in place more policies to protect the rights of women.

"Whenever NDC is in power, women get the maximum benefit," she stressed.

Speaking on the lynching of the 90-year-old woman at Kafaba in the East Gonja municipality in the Savannah Region for alleged witchcraft, Oye Lithur said the government must be blamed.

In her view, the 90-year-old woman, Akua Denteh would not have been lynched if the government had continued with a programme started by the John Mahama administration under her watch, to do away with the accusation of women as witches.

She said "We're talking about the lynching of a 90-year-old woman a few weeks ago; may she rest in perfect peace. Under NDC, under John Dramani Mahama, we started a programme to shut down witch camps and to provide support for women who had been accused of being witches and even to eradicate that customary practice.

"How do you politicise crime when you are introducing an intervention to address a custom, which adversely violates the rights of women? And because of the neglect of NPP and their failure to continue a well-spelled out programme to eradicate accusation of women as witches, it has led to lynching."