A 17-year-old BECE candidate at the Bene Afan International Junior High School at Nerebehi in the Atwima Nwabiagya District of the Ashanti Region has been hospitalized after five teenage boys allegedly gang-raped her.
The victim, after the incident, has been admitted at the Afari Community Hospital and has been unable to write the rest of her papers in the District Mock exams, conducted by the Ghana Education Service.
Narrating her ordeal to Citi News, she said she was lured by one of the suspects on a Saturday evening when she attended a wake-keeping ceremony in the area.
According to her, the suspects held her to the ground and took turns to forcefully have sex with her. She said the suspects threatened to kill her if she mentioned what happened to anyone.
“After the incident, they threatened and warned me not to mention it to anyone or they will kill me. I really struggled before reaching home on that day. I could not walk properly because I bled profusely from my private parts. Later when I got home, my brother saw me and informed my mother that I was lying at the back of the house. When my mother asked what the problem was I lied to her. I told her I had my period. If I knew my condition would have been this serious, I would have told her the truth,†she narrated.
She complained that the 'gang-rape' has affected her physically, psychologically and academically and has called on authorities to deal with the perpetrators.
“I feel pains in my abdomen and my vagina. I have a severe headache too and I feel so weak since the incident happen. I want the Police to deal with the perpetrators because they have really hurt me. Even the District Mock exams that are mandatory for candidates preparing for the BECE across the country, I have not been able to write because of what they have done to me,†she said.
Her mother Mother, Patience Opoku, has also demanded that the suspects should be brought to book after the parents of the suspects had the guts to attack them for reporting the matter to the police.
“When I saw the suspects in court, I felt sad for them. I would have asked for mercy for them, but after they raped my daughter, they came to our house with their relatives and rained insults on us for the reporting the matter to the police. They even damaged the glass window of my brother’s room. So my husband came back and felt our lives were not safe. So I want the law to take its courseâ€, she said.
Proprietor of the victim’s school, Kpordzaye Emmanuel Yaw, says the school will put alternative measures in place to help the victim write her final exams.
The ages of the suspects have been given as 19 for the oldest, and 17 for the other four.
The Akropong Magistrate Court has since remanded three of them into police custody, with the other two currently at large.
Â