Justice for rape victim stalls as suspect escapes from Navrongo police cells

A 32-year-old married woman from Gongnia in the Kassena-Nankana municipality (name withheld), who is a victim of rape, is yet to get justice as her suspected attacker and rapist has escaped from the Navrongo police station where he was being held.

The suspect, identified as Kwame Abass “presido”, had been arrested by the police in Navrongo on August 1, 2022, for allegedly attacking and raping the woman, but he escaped from the police cells the very day of his arrest under mysterious circumstances.

The Navrongo municipal police command, which confirmed the escape to Asaase News’s Upper East correspondent, Castro Senyalah, said the suspect got away as he was being led from the cell to a room for interrogation.

The police said the escape happened due to negligence on the part of three of its officers who were on duty that fateful day, adding that the said officers have since been given ten days in accordance with police protocol to produce the suspect.

As at the time of filing this report, it had been the twentieth day (20 days) since the cell break, but the suspect was yet to be produced to face the law. The escape of the suspect and the police inability to apprehend him has left the victim and her family questioning the country’s justice system. They have little to no trust that the suspect would be prosecuted to pay for his crime.

Additionally, the victim and her family are afraid the suspect, who is on the loose, may sneak back in to the community to attack them or neighbours who supported his arrest.

“The guy (the alleged attacker) was arrested around 9am in the morning after I went to the police station in Navrongo to report the issue. Then around 4pm, the Police CID called me and said the guy escaped. Now, we wonder why and how the guy escaped.” Quizzed the husband of the victim (name withheld) “

Caesar Ananga, the assemblyman for the Gongnia Electoral Area, who has taken up the matter, in an interview with Asaase News described the news of the escape from custody as worrying. He said he and the victim’s family would press on for justice regardless.

The assemblyman charged the police to do everything within their means to rearrest the suspect, as he could pose a threat to the victim’s family and women in the area.

“We are dismayed by the news that the suspect escaped from the police cells. Inasmuch as we aren’t happy about the development, we would allow the police to do their work. But irrespective whether the suspect is there or not, we are going to carry on with our demand for justice for the victim.

 Rape incident and the sandals that led to the arrest of suspects.

According to a police sitrep, the rape incident happened on August 1 ,2022, as the victim left home early dawn to assist her mistress in a porridge and bread-making business near the St. John Bosco’s College of Education. Her attacker, who had laid concealed in some bushes near the fence of the C.K Tedam University, pounced on her at knife-point and subjected her to beatings, stabbed her once in her left ear and many times in her left thigh before eventually raping her.

The suspect, according to the victim’s account, strangled and pinned her to the ground before he had his way with her. The suspect later abandoned the victim, but she was found helpless by a pastor who together with the victim’s husband took her to the War Memorial Hospital for treatment.

“I was going to work on Monday early dawn around 4am,” said the tearful victim, recounting her ordeal. Behind UDS [the University for Development Studies, now C K Tedam University], there are some teaks there, so the guy was hiding there. When I got there, he attacked me with a cutlass. I tried to escape. I ran and he kicked me down. He hit me with the cutlass and I struggled and fought with him.

I shouted, but no one came to help. He said I should bring my phone, and I gave [it to] him. He said I should bring money and I told him, ’I don’t have money with me.’ He attacked me again and we struggled there. He pressed my neck against the ground and he pulled me into the bushes and he raped me,” the victim recounted the ordeal.

In the heat of the struggle between the victim and suspect, both of them lost their sandals. The following morning, a family friend of the victim who had heard about the incident visited the scene and was able to retrieve some sandals. Among the discarded sandals was one piece of footwear which the victim’s family suspected belonged to the suspect, which he left behind while fleeing the scene of the rape.

The victim’s family launched an investigation using the footwear. Through that sandal, the victim’s family was able to identify the suspect through the suspect’s junior brother who also identified the sandals. Coincidentally, Abass [the suspect] had asked his junior brother to go and fetch his sandal from the scene of the rape that same morning.

Upon confrontation, the suspect’s family denied access to him and denied that he had been involved in any wrongdoing. They tried to hide the suspect from the public, but the police were called in to effect an arrest.

“We were able to identify the suspect through his sandal. As we struggled, we all left our sandals on the floor. So, when he was done and was running away, he forgot to take his sandals because I was shouting for help,”

 Anger among residents

The escape of the suspect is gradually building anger among residents of Navrongo who believe the suspect may have paid his way out of the police cells. Speaking to Asaase News on grounds of anonymity, some said it would be difficult for a suspect to escape from the station on the blindside of the police considering its architectural design.

“The police station has a wall and gates. Even the main building where the police keep suspects is security tight. So, how can someone escape from there.”- one resident quizzed.

“The officers are always there and there’s no way a suspect can move out without someone seeing the suspect. Someone among the officers helped the suspect to run away and the police must make sure to punish those officers and also find the suspect wherever he is to face the law for what he has done”- fumed another resident.

Meanwhile, the Navrongo municipal police commander, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Kingsley Kanda, in his response when contacted told Asaase News that the three complicit officers have been reported to higher authorities for the necessary disciplinary measures to be taken against them.

He appealed for calm and urged the public to help the police with intel that can lead to the arrest of the suspect. He would, however, not comment further on the case.

“Three of my men who were on duty when the suspect escaped have been reported to our higher authority for investigation and the appropriate disciplinary actions to be taken against them when found to be wrong. So, I will urge that the people are call and allow us to work to rearrest the suspect,”

Depletion of savings meant for school fees.

Working as an assistant at the porridge and bread shop was to afford the victim a decent living and also help her save towards furthering her education. While doing the menial job, the victim on the other hand applied to the Animal Health and Production College in Pong-Tamale to further education. Her dream is to become an agricultural extension officer.

So, all the waking up at dawn and getting beaten sometimes by the rains, were all sacrifices she was making to build for herself a better future. Although, what she got as earnings from her job was inadequate to even meet her needs, the victim who was determined to go back to school, found the urge to save up some money to pay her fees when she is offered admission.

“Working there is not easy. But I wake up every day to go there so that I can get something to help myself and my family. The pay is not good but what can I do. I don’t have anything else to do to get money. But any time I get something (money), I save some so that I can get enough to pay my admission fees in case I get the admission.”

But the rape incident that fateful dawn was the beginning of what may be an end to her plans to achieving her dreams. While on admission at the War Memorial Hospital in Navrongo where she spent weeks, the victim used up all the savings for her education, to settle medical bills. Her husband, a peasant farmer could not raise money for the medical expenses.

Coincidentally, the victim received a letter announcing the offer of admission to the Agric college while on her sick hospital bed. The letter gave her (victim) until 19 August 2022 to settle the admission fees.

It was double agony for the rape victim – she had no money to pay for her admission and her health kept deteriorating.

“I’m still on my sick bed in the hospital but I got the message that I have been given admission into the school. I am happy but I know that I will not get the money to pay the fees because I finished the money, I saved for school on treating myself,” the victim said amidst tears.

As the victim and her family cry for justice over the horrendous act, they are also praying and hoping that some helps comes their way to help the victim settle her admission fees to enable her pursue her dreams of becoming and an Agriculture Extension Officer.

Reporting by Senyalah Castro in the Upper East Region

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