A Kumasi-based lady (name withheld) has told CCF that she has been impregnated by two men who gang raped her in a taxi.
According to her, she had travelled to Twifo Praso in the Central Region to work to pay off a loan she owed when the incident happened.
Her predicament rather worsened, completely altering the fate of her life. It happened on her birthday, May 3, when she got to a lorry station at Twifo Praso and needed to board a taxi to her destination. The vehicle had the driver and another man aboard. At a town called Atieku near Daboase, the two men stopped the vehicle, pulled a knife on her, took turns to rape her, and robbed her of her belongings.
Despite taking several contraceptive pills, she said she still got pregnant. The ordeal, she indicated left her depressed as she has to battle a PCOS condition. She said she bravely reported the case to the police at Daboase, but the rapists’ family pleaded to settle the case at the family level, which she agreed to, for fear of stigmatization.
The victim alleged that the police took Gh¢7,000 from the rapists’ family to drop the case. The family also gave her Gh¢2,000, returned the items the ‘rapists’ stole from her, and paid for other items including her mobile phone they destroyed during the act.
In all, she said she received an amount totalling nearly Ghc 7,000 as a means of reparation. Though she regrets agreeing to settle the matter at the family level, she is unable to legally pursue the case due to stigma.
The ‘rapists’ who went into hiding, she said later returned to continue their work at the lorry station after the case was dropped. Disregarding the pains they have put her through, the ‘rapists’ called her to rain insults on her and issued her death threats if she dared continue the case.
The only way to escape the shame, she said is to end her life. As it stands, it is either she keeps the 3-month-old pregnancy or never dream of becoming a mother if she attempts an abortion. Would she ever love her unborn child? Why did the police agree to settle the matter out of court when the case is not a misdemeanor?
SOURCE: Crime Check
