DCE condemned for obstructing child labour rescue exercise

The District Chief Executive for Awutu-Senya, Samson Abbey-Armah, has been condemned for stopping an exercise to rescue children being engaged in harsardous labour along the district's coast.

A non-governmental organisation, Challenging Heights, had in collaboration with the Ghana Police and other stakeholders fixed last Wednesday to rescue school going children being used for fishing in the district.

However, Mr Abbey-Armah who was part of initial meetings, was said to have on the day of the exercise, ordered the Police and the other stakeholders to stop the rescue mission without recourse to the organisers.

The DCE is said to have later told journalists that he and the Assembly, who were part of the meetings regarding the rescue mission, were unaware of such an exercise to rescue the children and arrest the perpetrators.

"We find this development very unfortunate and disheartening," a statement issued by the Communications Manager of Challenging Heights, Pomaa Arthur said, adding the "DCE is being economical with the truth if he says he had no knowledge of the Beach Raid"

The statement recalled a meeting with the DCE and the Assembly on March 4 at which event it emerged the Assembly could not embark on a similar exercise it planned due to financial constraint.

It said the DCE consequently approved the planned exercise by challenging Heights and personally delegated the District Coordinating Director to provide the necessary support to make rescue mission successful.

The NGO said it was thus surprised about the DCE's U-turn and expressed disappointment in Mr Abbey-Armah "for refusing to and even going to the extent of threatening us with arrest should we embark on a program which seeks to comply and enforce the Children’s Act of 1998 and the Human Trafficking Act, 2005."

The statement further said for the DCE to claim he doesn’t know of Challenging Heights or its projects in the district, including the establishment of Micah 6:8 Vocational School, "is a clear testament of his ignorance of the developments in his district and an indication that he is not on the ground".

"If Mr Abbey-Armah is saying he isn’t aware that Challenging Heights has supported over 400 women from his district out of the 1200 women who have benefitted from the organisation’s Livelihood Programme, how sure can we be sure that this DCE has the interests of his people at heart?," it wondered.

The statement said Challenging Heights will not be deterred the regrettable incident and will stay focused on its mission of rescuing children from trafficking situations, rehabilitating victims of trafficking and providing them with quality education and also continue collaborating with MMDAs, Law Enforcement Agencies, CSOs and the Government of Ghana among others to ensure that child trafficking is eliminated in Ghana.