Vagina assault: Our institutions are weak and discriminatory – Angela Dwamena

Ghana’s state institutions are 'weak and discriminatory' because they lack the objectivity in dealing with cases when it involves prominent and insignificant people in our society, lawyer and gender activist Angela Dwamena Aboagye has stated.

Commenting on a mob action against a lady who allegedly stole an amount of GHC 1,100 in the Kejetia, Angela Dwamena Aboagye expressed dissatisfaction with the Ghana Police Service and other key state institutions on the lackluster approach to dealing with the perpetrators of the vile act. She abhorred the act by the security apparatus to prioritize other violent acts over similar ones against women describing it as bias.

On February 17, a young lady accused of having stolen GHS 1,100 was stripped naked, beaten, groped and paraded barefooted on the streets of Kejetia in Kumasi in the Ashanti Regional capital by an irate crowd. Videos and pictures taken show how the lady was sexually assaulted with some members of the crowd inserting their fingers and toes into the lady's genitals.

“It’s more of a society that we think we can do whatever we want and get away with it. Our institutions are weak and discriminatory. I mean if something happens to somebody who is very important, the amount of attention we give to that is very different to somebody who is not so important”, Angela Dwamena Aboagye asserted.

She urged the police to take up the mantle of fighting violence perpetrated against people especially women accused of committing an offence by implementing and enforcing education with other collaborators to deter people from such acts.