The Regional Commander in-charge of the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service in the Upper West Region, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mr. Adongo Apiiyah has warned men who take the delight in touching the breasts of women or girls at the least opportunity to stop otherwise the law will not spare them when they are reported to the police.

This particular warning goes to men who take advantage of ladies hawking along the streets or in the communities and touch their breasts under the pretext of patronising their wares.

“The breasts are her sole property so stop touching them without her permission; if you want to buy the item, fine, but if you don’t let her go so that you don’t find yourself in trouble. Such action is frowned on by law.

“Some men have the habit of touching young girls inappropriately against their wish and this must stop because if such a man is reported to DOVVSU with substantive evidence to back the claim, the man will be dealt with by law,” he said.

ASP Apiiyah who was educating participants at a “Sexual Reproductive Health Programme” at Jang in the Nadowli/Kaleo District of the Upper West Region again said that women who were sexually abused could report to the police station for help.

The programme was organised by Department of Gender with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

He advised parents to be circumspect when entrusting their female babies and toddlers to the care of other people, even if they were close relatives.

He said some people were so immoral to the extent that they were able to sexually abuse even toddlers and babies.

“We have recorded incidents at the office involving very small babies and minors and you wonder what kind of sexual urge the perpetrators have, yet it happened because parents trusted such people who were mostly very close to them and left the children in their care”, he said.

According to him, trusting people blindly and leaving your children with them because they were close to the family could lead to dire consequences which would be difficult to repair even if the perpetrator was jailed.

The police officer said defilement cases recorded in the region sometimes involved babies as young as seven months old and said in some instances the perpetrators looked for alternative ways to satisfy their sexual urge with the baby by using their fingers instead of their manhood and described the act as very disgusting.

ASP Apiiya used the opportunity to remind such unscrupulous people that defilement could earn them up to 25 years in prison and asked that they desist from the practice.

Adding her voice, the Regional Director of the Gender Department, Ms Charity Banye said the law on sexual abuse mostly favoured women than men and asked that men should take cue and avoid circumstance that would make them come into conflict with the law.

“Even if a girl is trying to seduce you and you realise that it would lead to issues that would put you in trouble, the best thing for you to do is to move away from her so that you do not get distracted because you are unlikely to win a case of rape against a girl when you could have avoided it”, she said.

By Lydia Darlingtong Fordjour, Jang