Justice has been delayed for the girl who, in the company of her father, lodged a complaint at the Obuasi Police Station about a sexual assault by her headmaster.
It has been three months since the incident occurred and same reported to the police for the necessary action.
It is instructive that telltale evidences were presented at the time of the complaint to the police.
A statement now in the public domain alludes to the fact that a docket on the subject matter has been deposited with the Attorney General’s (AG) Department for advice.
The advice has been long in coming, and we wonder when it would.
We would rather this matter is disposed of quickly to obviate the embarrassing developments which continue to pop up with each passing day.
The emerging discrepancies are not convincing and make it look like out of desperation somebody or a group of people are intent on insulting our intelligence.
While the Interior Minister’s claim is that the suspect has been arrested in tandem with procedure, a statement from Obuasi stated otherwise. Under the circumstances, we are left befuddled and left with no option than to speculate or even draw our individual conclusions on the matter.
This situation would have been avoided had things followed their normal acceptable paths without tendentious manoeuvres.
The abused girls demand justice and now, because the more this is delayed, the further we depart from getting a fair adjudication.
Our hearts bleed for the abused and perhaps defiled girls who, in the quest for education, found themselves in the situation they did.
It would be almost impossible to get all the affected girls to come forward and assist law enforcement personnel in their investigations. We have learnt that most of the girls could possibly turn down police invitations, fearing for their images or even lives.
If a holistic investigation is to be undertaken in the subject on our plates, the previous schools where the suspect served must be included.
Before then, whatever happened to the already concluded one awaiting the AG’s advice?
Nobody is asking that the suspect be guillotined even before investigations are undertaken, the narrative some are putting out on the public domain seeming to suggest.
Procedural blemishes and undue delay when they occur, as in the case under review, prompt speculations which are anything but positive.
Were the girls abused or not? Were petitions presented? There are sufficient evidence to prove so, and so what is needed now is action. Although justice has been delayed since the occurrences, especially the one aforementioned, we cannot fold our arms as a society as the abused girls are denied justice.
It is not about the Interior Minister vouching for somebody’s quality, but ensuring that the right things are done.