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Girl 10, loses memory after horrific torture
A 10-year-old girl at Kpenoe, near Ho, is suffering from memory loss after she was tied up by her paternal grandmother and subjected to severe beatings and left under the scorching sun for more than four hours, a police inquest has revealed.
The perpetrator of this barbaric act by name, Aku Gbafa, a Togolese, who is believed to be in her 50s was said to have carried out the medieval torture on the helpless and starving child as punishment for using GH¢1 from the vegetables she was sent to sell, to buy food.
of the child
The poor and traumatised child who was rescued by officials of the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development has been on admission at the Ho Teaching Hospital (HTU) with sores on her fingers and wrist, since November 19, struggling to regain her full memory.
The Probation Officer of the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development in the Ho Municipality, Mr Wisdom Kodjo Krakani disclosed these to The Spectator on Tuesday.
He said that some horrified neighbours alerted his outfit on November 15, leading to the rescue of the girl (name withheld) and the subsequent handing over of the woman to the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) at the Regional Police Headquarters, Ho.
According to Mr Krakani, preliminary investigations revealed that the girl, whose father lived in Togo, was staying with her grandmother at Kpenoe.
As a daily routine, her grandmother sent her to go into town to sell vegetables every morning before going to school.
The probation officer said on that fateful morning, the victim carried out the duty diligently and returned home to realise that her grandmother had left no food for her before going to the farm.
The starving child then used GH¢1 from the morning’s sales to buy rice and quickly told her grandmother about it, when she (Gbafa) returned home.
That, Mr Krakani said, angered the suspect who is said to have vowed that she would not go to the farm the next day but rather stay home to teach the child a bitter lesson.
True to her words, the woman tied both hands and both legs of the girl in the open the next morning and beat her with a cane for hours until the victim started bleeding from the injuries.
As if that was not enough, the grandmother ground pepper and smeared it into the cuts, before leaving the girl under the scorching sun for several hours.
Mr Krakani said that the suspect then told the child to tell her teachers or anyone who sought to know what happened to her that she accidentally fell in boiling water.
He said that though the incident took place a few days before the girl was rescued, the girl as of now could not remember the exact day due to the trauma she was suffering from.
The story was corroborated by DOVVSU on Monday when contacted.
Aku Gbafa is currently on bail assisting in police investigations.
From Alberto Mario Noretti, Kpenoe
President John Dramani Mahama has commissioned four career diplomats as ambassador-designates to represent Ghana in four countries.
The commissioning ceremony took place on Friday, October 16, 2026.
The new envoys are Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo, Ambassador-Designate to Angola; His Excellency Louis Kwame Obeng, Ambassador-Designate to Qatar; Her Excellency Evelyn Korantemaa Ofosu-Amable, Ambassador-Designate to Israel; and His Excellency Jedidiah Reuben Adogla, Permanent Representative-Designate to Switzerland.
President Mahama charged them to advance Ghana’s national interests through strategic partnerships, economic diplomacy, investment mobilization, and expanded access to international markets.
He said Ghana’s diplomatic engagements must deliver tangible economic benefits, create jobs, and strengthen the country’s standing on the international stage.
The four envoys are career diplomats with over 27 years of experience.
On behalf of her colleagues, Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo thanked the President for the confidence reposed in them and pledged their commitment to emulate his leadership and deliver on the mandate given to them.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
The professor who spends his days exploring the intricacies of African languages found himself at the centre of a different kind of lesson on Friday, October 2, 2026. 
This time, there were no lecture notes, academic arguments or university classrooms. Instead, there was the weight of tradition, the rhythm of a community celebration and the solemnity of an oath at a royal palace.
Professor Ọbádélé Kambon, a full Professor of African Linguistics at the University of Ghana, was enstooled as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene of Akuapem Mampong in the Eastern Region in a ceremony that brought academia and traditional authority together.
For the professor, the occasion was more than a new title. It was a moment that connected his academic interests in African languages and indigenous knowledge with the living traditions of an Akan community.
The day’s events unfolded through a series of customary observances. Kambon was first taken to the compounds of the Ɔkyeamehene and Gyasehene, where the preparations for his installation continued.
Then came the application of hyire, the white kaolin powder associated with traditional rites.
With the customary proceedings underway, the new chief was lifted onto the shoulders of celebrants and carried along the main thoroughfare of Akuapem Mampong.
The procession transformed the streets into a public stage for a ceremony rooted in the community’s traditional institutions.
There was something striking about the image, a university professor, accustomed to the measured language of academic discourse, being carried through the town in a display of traditional recognition.
Yet the celebration was not complete with the procession.
A ram was sacrificed at the Mamponghene’s compound before Kambon was taken to the palace, to swear the oath associated with his new offices.
The ceremony brought him formally into his roles as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene.
Beyond the colourful proceedings, the titles themselves carry layers of historical meaning.
Kambon in his research explores the historical connections between Apagya and Akan political and military organisation.
Accounts cited in his work linked Apagya to an asafo, or military company, while historical writing traces an Apagya stool in Asante to the reign of Opoku Ware I in the eighteenth century.
These historical associations offer a glimpse into the institutions that have shaped Akan society over generations, although they do not automatically define the precise responsibilities of the office in Akuapem Mampong.
Kambon’s own professional life reflects a similar interest in preserving and examining African knowledge.
His work encompasses Akan language structure, naming practices across the Black world, proverbs and indigenous intellectual traditions.
Through Abibitumi, the platform he founded, he also promotes language learning, scholarship and cultural engagement.
But tradition was only one part of the story that day.
When the formal ceremony gave way to a reception, the occasion expanded into a celebration of three milestones: Kambon’s enstoolment, his promotion to full professor and his daughter Ama’s admission to the University of Ghana.
The gathering therefore carried a personal significance that went beyond the honours bestowed on one man. 
It celebrated professional advancement, the continuation of family aspirations and a connection to cultural heritage.
For a father, seeing a daughter gain admission to the same university where he holds a distinguished academic position offered another reason to celebrate.
For the professor, the moment placed family achievement alongside his own professional and traditional milestones.
Kambon had already established a place in the traditional life of Akuapem Mampɔn through an earlier installation as Banmuhene Kyidɔmhene, recorded in 2017.
His latest enstoolment adds another chapter to that relationship.
In Akuapem Mampɔn, the day brought together the university, the palace and the family table in one celebration. And for Kambon, the journey from the lecture room to the traditional procession showed how scholarship, cultural responsibility and family achievement could converge in a single memorable occasion.
By Enoch Ntiamoah Siaw
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