A teenager who was brutally raped and hanged to die by a member of her community at Assin Adadiemtem in the Central region has opened up about her ordeal.
The 18-year-old Junior High School (JHS) graduate, Maabena [pseudonym] said her rapist dragged her into a room, raped her and fastened a rope around her neck to kill her.
But she survived the incident.
She narrated the story to Joy News’ Maxwell Agbagba when he met her working on cocoa pods on her grandmother’s farm over the weekend.
The traumatized rape victim said she was at her sister’s place where they sell eggs where her alleged assailant, Ebenezer, called her to send her.
While she was about collecting the money from him, he dragged her into his room, tore her dress and had sex on several occasions with her.
She then took her phone to call her mother, but Ebenezer seized the phone and damaged it.
He also prevented her from going outside because he did not want her to report what he had done to her.
According to her, he got angry with her insistence to go home and begun assaulting her physically.
Ebenezer, whom she referred to as “Sir [teacher]” then slapped her and tied a roped around her neck and hanged her inside his room.
He kept abusing her until she fell from the rope and hit her head on the floor and fell unconscious.
Although she was screaming when all this was taking place, no one could hear her because Ebenezer’s radio was loud, she said.
She said she did not eat from the Friday evening that her assailant kidnapped her until Saturday morning.
She describes her bid to be an obedient girl by agreeing to run an errand for a family friend as a source of stigma.
She now walks around with the scar from the noose of the rope tied around her neck by her rapist three weeks ago.
Maabena has lost hope and she thinks her goals can no longer be realized.
The mother of the victim also told Joy News that family members of the accused are pleading with her to let the matter be settled at home.
She said they feigned interest insisting that will happen when he sees the one who committed the act, but the family members said they do not know his location.
She wants justice to be served.
She said lately her daughter gets depressed and usually complains of dizziness.
The shaken mother of the teenager feared the body of her daughter would never have been found if she had died when she was kidnapped.
According to her, she never knew the accused had such evil intentions after he came to tell her he teaches at a private school nearby.
She said because he was close to her children, he even encouraged her to change the school of one of her daughters because the girl was brilliant and will do well in a private school.
She called on the government to intervene to stop the indiscriminate rape of babies, girls, and women in the Assin Adadiemtem community.
Meanwhile, the young girl whose case sparked national outrage, particularly among civil society groups is making steady progress towards recovery and police say they have one person assisting with investigations.
Also, the Gender and Social Protection Minister, Otiko Djaba, has broken her silence to Joy News saying her outfit is keenly monitoring the case.
This is prize we pay when traditional leaders who are supposed to safeguard and uphold the norms and statutes rather flout them with impunity. I’m not surprised cos there is too much freedom for children in this community,lax norms and a total of community leadership. Only God can save my village.