Sex Bus Driver Mad

An end to the now politicized sex saga is nowhere near in sight as the driver of the ill-fated Yutong bus, Samuel Asiedu Sasu, threatens to curse Amina Mohammed and any other person who claims there was any such mass rape of women onboard his vehicle at the instigation of armed robbers.

The story remains a conundrum, teasing the minds of both security agents and most Ghanaians who listen to the different versions and interpretations to the emanating narrations as they inundate the media space.

Fifty-two-year-old Samuel Asiedu Sasu, who was behind the steering wheels of the Yutong bus en route to Bolgatanga from Accra, threatened to invoke a curse on Amina the passenger whose revelation at Adom FM, a Tema-based radio station, led to the current confusion over the authenticity or otherwise of the sex saga, even though more passengers have also corroborated Amina’s story.

Samuel Sasu is angry with Amina who mentioned him as the man who collapsed after having sex with three women, part of five allegedly put at his disposal by the armed robbers as punishment for trying to flee.

Speaking yesterday after denying that there was any such an action after his bus was attacked by a group of marauding armed robbers, Sasu said, “I want to say that it is not true that a father was forced to rape his daughter in my bus.

I challenge anyone saying that they saw me or any other person raping other female passengers, after which I collapsed, to prove it or else I will rain curses on that person to death.”

He stated that following his discovery that armed robbers had blocked a section of the highway after Kubease on the Kumasi end of the Accra-Kumasi Highway, his vehicle was fired upon, damaging his windscreen. “At this point, I knew that I had to fight for my life so I went through the blockade as the passengers screamed, ‘armed robbers, armed robbers’.”

He managed to evade the armed robbers and drove his passengers to their final destination, a story corroborated by the owners of the transport company.

Daily Guide is in possession of the Ghana police extract containing the text of report Sasu lodged with the security agents at the Ejisu Police Station dated 12-10-10. It reads, “One Samuel Asiedu Sasu of Samgec Logistic Company came to the station and reported that today 12/10/10 at about 2:00am, armed robbers attacked them at Kubease near Boankra in Kumasi.

That, in the process the armed robbers shot the front windscreen, as such informing police for necessary action. Extract of the occurrence was prepared from the station diary and handed over to the complainant to be sent to the authorities.”

In yet another twist to the confusing story, a man who claimed to have been onboard the bus and sought to corroborate Amina’s story on Adom FM, was quickly stopped from doing so by Superintendent Kwesi Ofori, Head of Police Public Affairs, who advised him to go and tell the story to the police, and not to the media.

Kwesi Ofori said the media should not usurp the functions of the police. Another person, who claimed to be a passenger on the bus, also went to the station, admitting that indeed the incident happened and that he was forced to sleep with a 35-year-old woman. The passenger, a certain Frimpong, corroborated Amina’s story, engaging the driver in a heated argument before he was taken off air.

The most touching part of the story was the one about how a father was compelled to have sex with his daughter. Passengers on the bus allegedly decided not to disclose the mass sex they were subjected to by their captors for fear of being stigmatised.

Earlier, a certain Issa, who spoke to Adom FM from a location in the North last Friday, corroborated Amina’s story, adding that he could not locate his ticket but added that upon his return to Accra, he would add his voice to what has turned to be a tale of confusing narrations.

Yesterday, Prof. Ken Attafuah, a criminologist and lawyer for Amina, expressed worry at the politicisation of the case and the condemnation of it as a hoax even before investigations commenced.

On the continued detention of Amina, Prof. Attafuah was at his wit’s end. He explained that as a mother of three, there was now an additional burden on Amina’s mother to take care of her grandchildren as their father is domiciled abroad.

Prof. Attafuah’s impression of Amina is that she is one who is credible with no traits of a person who can fake a story for political reasons as is the position of some persons.

According to him, he has dealt with many persons in his career and can draw the line between a person who cannot be trusted and one who can. Amina, in one of her narrations, wondered what she stands to gain from telling a story which never happened. She is said to have called a friend who lives in the same neighbourhood with her in Ashaiman and told him about what happened during her trip, in the company of her mother, to the North for a funeral.

The story has attracted much attention following the expression of disgust by the President and a subsequent meeting with his security chiefs. Some have put a political spin on it.

In a related development, the Minister of Information, John Akologu has petitioned the National Media Commission (NMC) about what he considers the carriage of a fabrication as narrated by Amina by Joy Fm and Adom FM, both belonging to the Multimedia Group.

The story, as carried by the stations, the minister observed, had created a negative impression about the country. “It is my view that whiles enormous challenges confront the government and the security agencies in fighting organized crime and protecting the citizenry, the last thing anybody should do is to compound the situation with fabrications and false alarm.”

Meanwhile, Supt. Ofori has assured the public that Amina would be handed over to competent police clinical psychologists to thoroughly examine her mental constitution.