8 Legon Boys Charged

Some of the handcuffed students at the court premises yesterday

Eight students of the University of Ghana, Legon, have been charged for indecent assault of Amina Haruna, a lady who went to the campus of the university to trade.

Four more students are expected to join the eight, bringing the number of suspects to 12 in the Amina sexual assault saga.

The eight students who arrived at an Accra Circuit Court yesterday to face charges of indecently assaulting Amina Haruna, the lady who is also suspected to be a thief, were accompanied by tens of their colleagues in a show of solidarity.

The assault victim Amina was also there but it was unclear whether she would also be charged or would be a prosecution witness.

The students, who arrived in three buses, were seen walking to and fro the court while waiting for their colleagues to be tried.

The suspects who were identified by the victim, after a police identification parade, were initially taken to cells at the 28th February Road Court, popularly called Cocoa Affairs Court, and thirty minutes later whisked to Mrs. Georgina Mensah-Datsa's court where it was revealed by a court clerk that the judge had retired for the day.

They were immediately sent back into the cells, waiting to be taken back to police custody as the case was adjourned to today.

The students are to be charged with indecent assault and causing unlawful harm.

DSP Kofi Blagodzi told journalists that he was still studying the docket and declined to give details such as the names of the suspects or what offence each was expected to be charged with.

Earlier, the Legon Police said they were screening the students suspected to have been involved in molesting Amina, who had earlier been arrested twice for stealing on the Legon Campus.

The university has also indicated in a press release issued on Wednesday April 20, 2011 that a fact-finding committee set up by the school had since Tuesday April 12, completed its work and submitted a report to the Vice-Chancellor who is the Head of the Disciplinary Committee.

'The fact-finding committee appointed by the Executive Committee of the University to look into the circumstances leading to the mentioned event has completed its work and submitted a report on its findings to the Dean of Students and the Vice-Chancellor on Tuesday, 12th April 2011. The Committee identified a number of students who were present during the molestation as seen in the video clips produced and also from credible eye-witness accounts.'

Following this development, a number of students who were identified were handed over to the police to assist in their investigations.

'Without any prejudice to the provisions of the University's statutes, the list of persons duly identified in the report of the fact-finding committee has been handed over to the Ghana Police Service for its own investigations,' it stated.

The university said that 'based on the recommendations of the fact-finding committee, the Vice-Chancellor, in his capacity as the Chief Disciplinary Officer of the University, has referred the case against the persons mentioned in the report to the Disciplinary Committee for students.'

Those persons were invited to meet with the Disciplinary Committee through a Writ of Summons issued on Wednesday, 13th April 2011.

Amina Haruna, a resident of Maamobi in Accra, was on Thursday March 31, 2011 stripped naked when she was caught by students of the Mensah Sarbah Hall, Annex B, popularly called Okponglo, on the Legon campus for allegedly stealing a number of mobile phones and a laptop computer.

Though some of the students were seen trying to free her from the claws of her captors, others were seen eagerly stretching her thighs widely open for their colleagues to insert their fingers and even mobile phones into her vagina, revealing her clitoral region.

Amina's brassiere and her underpants where shredded and even snatched away, leaving her stark naked for the boys to do their own thing, despite her pleas for leniency.

By Fidelia Achama