Girls in Builsa Area Forced into Marriage

Sandema (U/E) April 12, GNA - Teachers at the Kanjarga Junior Secondary School in the Bulisa District of the Upper East Region on Tuesday expressed concern at the increasing rate at which young men in the area elope with girls in recent times.

They said girls between the ages of 12 and 16 years, some of whom were in school, were taken at random against their wish and forced into marriage by men they hardly knew.

Speaking at the People's Assembly in Sandema, Mr. Martin Akandewe, one of the teachers said for this year, three girls from the Kanjarga JSS had been taken into that kind of marriage.

He narrated an incident where a hairdresser in her 20s who trained in Tamale returned home to Kanjarga to establish her business but had to leave because of harassment and threats from the young men in town. Mr. Akandewe said some young residents had formed a club to educate people against the outmoded custom adding, however, that the Chief and the assemblyman did not show any interest in the efforts to halt the practice.

He appealed to the district assembly to take a serious view of the situation and find ways to stop the practice if girls in the area were to be given a chance to go to school, and also move around without fear.

Mr. Thomas Alonsi, District Chief Executive, said the assembly had so far taken up the provision of basic infrastructure that would benefit the majority of the people.

In the area of education, he said the assembly, with assistance from some donor agencies had built teachers' quarters and school blocks in some communities.

He said 123 teacher trainees were being sponsored to help provide Schools in the district with trained teachers. On health, Mr. Alonsi said about 1,002 people had so far benefited from the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) at a cost of 67.9 million cedis, and called on the people to register so as to get easy access to health care.

Mr. Boniface Gambila, Upper East Regional Minister, said the government had earned an enviable record in fulfilling the promises in the manifesto of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). He said the region had been allocated 100 tractors for farmers at reduced prices. He added that with the introduction of the Capitation Grant there were no more inhibitions to prevent children from attending school, while the NHIS had opened the doors of affordable healthcare to all.

Mr. Roy Ayariga, Regional Director of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) assured the people that they could freely consume chicken as no case of bird flu had been detected in the country. He said officers of MOFA, CEPS and Immigration were working at the border posts to prevent the transportation of birds into the country from neighbouring Burkina Faso, which had reported the presence of the disease.