Soldiers rape girls at Nalerigu

Eight soldiers and some policemen have allegedly raped four girls, aged between 15 and 17, at Nalerigu in the Northern Region where they were deployed to quell a public disorder in the town on Tuesday evening.

While some of them had forceful sex with the girls, others preferred to fondle the private parts of their victims at gunpoint, according to residents.

Another source put the number of girls raped at seven.

One of the victims of the gang-rape told Joy FM yesterday that she was raped repeatedly by two soldiers and a policeman.

According to her, she is 19 years old, and an apprentice seamstress. She said the security men forcibly entered her room, took her Madam’s money and gang-raped her without using condom.

“Two of them went two rounds each and another also had two rounds of sexual intercourse with me,” she narrated last night.

All this while, she said, they pushed the muzzle of their gun in her mouth after using it to lift up her skirt.

Upon a report, she was sent to the Baptist Medical Centre where a foreign doctor took care of her.

The action, which attracted the anger of residents, took place in the presence of a certain Joe Manaba, a student of the Nabongu Junior High School who told DAILY GUIDE that the rape victims were his sisters.

According to Manaba, three of the girls (whose names are being withheld) were gang-raped by the soldiers who stormed their house ostensibly in search of some mischief makers.

The soldiers, he said, went to the Sabon Zongo quarters of the town shortly after the last prayer (Isha) of Muslims and in one of the houses, they knocked on the door of a room.

When it was opened, the occupants were greeted by fierce-looking soldiers who ordered all of them to lie on the floor.

The rampaging bunch proceeded to lash their victims, after which they locked all the women but took aside the three whose names are being withheld, taking turns to rape the girls.

According to the eyewitness, not even the pleas from his mother could stop the soldiers from continuing their action and they threatened to beat her up if she did not shut up.

Although the Gambaga Divisional Police Commander, Bismarck Achaab, had denied there was any such misdemeanour on the part of the security agents, he was quick to add that there was a report about a rape.

The Northern Regional Police Commander, ACP Awuni Angwubutoge, said he was awaiting the outcome of a medical doctor’s report before taking action on the case.

He however doubted that his men would engage in such a misdemeanour.

The alleged rape cases took place when there was heightened security in the town after some houses were set ablaze in retaliation of the death of the People’s National Convention (PNC) parliamentary candidate in the Nalerigu-Gambaga constituency, Moses Alando Banaba.

Reports said military personnel detailed to the town terrorized residents in the late hours of Tuesday, brutalizing them, seizing their valuables and raping the girls.

The scandal was said to have come in the wake of a public uproar about a video footage of a soldier maltreating two naked men in Bawku.

A cross-section of persons spoken to, expressed dissatisfaction with the presence of the military in the town, claiming this was exacerbating the situation in Nalerigu.

As at press time, the Nayiri, paramount Chief of the area, appealed for calm in the town and promised there would not be a repeat of the misconduct from the soldiers.

It would be recalled that the murder of Moses Alando Banaba, a pharmacist at the Baptist Medical Centre, started generating tension in the town, leading eventually to the burning of houses including that of the Salifu Tia, the suspected murderer.

The burning of the houses was said to have been committed by supporters of the deceased in retaliation of his murder.

The 2008 parliamentary candidate for the People’s National Convention, Moses Alando Banaba, was shot and killed by Salifu Tia.

Eyewitnesses said the victim was on his way to work when he was killed by his assailant. The shooting incident, according to security sources, was believed to be a spillover from Bawku following a long-standing tribal conflict between the Mamprusis and Kusasis over chieftaincy succession.