Trader jailed for defiling 13 year-old girl

Fiapre (B/A) Aug. 15 (Regina Benneh) GNA - A Circuit Court at Fiapre in the Brong Ahafo Region on Friday sentenced Issaka Banda, a 41-year-old trader to eight years imprisonment in hard labour for defiling a 13-year-old girl in Sunyani. Banda pleaded guilty to the charge.

Prosecuting, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Alex Yartey Tawiah told the court presided by Mr Kwadwo Owusu Gyamfi that Banda negotiated to marry the girl with Madam Asibi Asakesese the mother now deceased.

The victim lived with her elder sister, Ms Yaa Azune, 22, a hairdresser at Nana Bosoma Market in Sunyani.

DSP Tawiah said the accused started having sex with the victim in 2002 when she was 11 years old.

After her mother's death, the girl moved to stay with her stepfather, Mr. Kofi Abdgo at Kotokrom, near Sunyani.

Banda went to the stepfather and performed the marriage rites with a bottle of Kasapreko, a guinea fowl, tobacco and kola, after which Mr. Abdgo ordered the girl to go and stay with the accused in Sunyani. DSP Tawiah said Ms Azune got annoyed with the issue and reported the case to WAJU in Sunyani and when the Police interrogated him, the accused admitted the offence and pleaded for forgiveness.