Wa Defilement Case: Court sets October 17 to rule on case

The Wa Circuit Court has set October 17, 2023, to rule on the case of 35- 35-year-old Ahmed Rashid, who is standing trial for alleged defile­ment.

The court made the decision after the accused concluded his defence on three dockets that had been built on the case.

One of the dockets involved a victim, aged about 13 years, who said the accused had sex with her several times, another involved a victim and the third involved three victims, one of whom the accused said was his cousin.

All the victims were aged between 12 and 14 years.

Throughout the cross-examina­tion of the three cases, the accused denied having canal knowledge of the victims.

Rashid said apart from his cousin, he did not know the other victims, who accused him of having sexual intercourse with them.

Rashid denied the allegation that the victims had been to his house.

However, Mr Saeed Abdul Shakur, a Principal State Attor­ney, in the Upper West Region, told the court presided over by Jonathan Avogo that the victims told the police that the accused had sex with them in his room.

The Principal State At­torney said the accused defiled the girls when his wife left the matrimonial home.

According to Mr Shakur, Ahmed’s wife, in a statement to the police said she had problems with Ahmed because of his relationship with girls, but Ahmed denied the wife’s claim.

Rashid also dis­missed the claim that he had his sister’s (one of the victim’s mother’s) phone contact number off-head.

The accused refuted the allega­tion that he had sex with the girls and gave them food and GH¢10 each.

The accused person, who still had no lawyer, moved a bail application, but the prosecutor opposed it because the accused could evade trial.

Mr Avogo denying the accused bail, said the fact that Ahmed abscond­ed when the alarm was raised for his arrest, was enough evidence that he (accused) would evade justice if released on bail.

Meanwhile, the court had set October 17, 2023, to give judgment on one of the dockets.

In May, 2023, Ahmed abscond­ed after he was accused by three school girls of defilement.

In a viral social media video posted in May 2023, three school girls aged between 10 and 13 years accused Ahmed, of defilement after the latter invited the girls to his house in Wa.

The Chief Executive Officer of Bahass Foundation, Mr Eliasu Baba Yussif, lodged a complaint with the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service on behalf of the three defiled school girls.

As the Wa Police investigation progressed on the alleged defile­ment of the three school girls by Ahmed, more girls in the Wa Mu­nicipality made the same allegation against the accused.

According to reports from the office of the regional state Attorney, the accused was remanded in police custody and granted bail in 2016 for defilement, and the victim’s mother was pressured by local opinion leaders to opt for an out-of-court settlement.