Accra, Sept. 27, GNA - An Accra Circuit Tribunal on Monday ordered Nana Denkyi Awere, a sub-chief of Kwahu Traditional Area, who stood surety for a rape culprit, Joseph Osei Agyeman, to pay 10 million cedis.
The tribunal chaired by Mrs Elizabeth Anderson-Yeboah, ordered further that the surety should go to prison for six months in hard labour, if he failed to pay.
The order followed the forfeiture of the recognisance, which Nana Awere entered into on December 25, last year, in the sum of five million cedis for himself and five million cedis for Agyeman, who has since been on the run.
Briefing the tribunal, Police Inspector Alex Yartey Tawiah, the prosecutor at the Women And Juvenile Unit (WAJU) of the Police Service said sometime in December, last year, Agyeman now at large, repeatedly defiled a nine-year-old girl.
Inspector Tawiah said the suspect was arrested by the James Town Police and was granted five million cedis bail. He said Nana Awere stood surety for the suspect who was to report periodically at the station, while investigation continued.
The prosecutor said the parents of the victim went to the Police station to withdraw the case for amicable settlement at home. As a result, the victim was compensated with 400,000 cedis to enable her to defray her medical expenses.
He said a letter written by the victim to the Police, indicated that she was no longer interested in pursuing the case and that the case was to be discontinued, hence, the Police did not prosecute the suspect.
According to him, it was after the victim's health deteriorated and she became paralysed, that her uncle reported her plight to the commanding officer of WAJU, who called for the docket from the James Town Police Station for study and investigation.
Inspector Tawiah said after all efforts by WAJU to prosecute Agyeman became futile, the surety, Nana Awere was, therefore, sent before the tribunal on August Two, for forfeiture of the recognisance he entered into, or to produce the suspect but, he could not do so.
Inspector Tawiah said Nana Awere, however, pleaded for extension of time to enable him to produce Agyeman but failed to do so.
