Despicable Fatherhood!  

Victor Danso

Our front page story of a Kumasi-based father, Victor Danso, who forcefully had sex with his 17-year-old daughter before he would give her money to pay her school fees, is simply heart-breaking.

Obviously, such a character does not deserve to be called father. At best, he is just a sperm donor; and an irresponsible one for that matter.

He does not deserve to live with human beings and ought to be declared as someone who should never go near children for the rest of the days he has to spend on earth.

Not only did the incest dad defile his minor daughter on five occasions, but he also threatened her with death if she dared reveal the abominable act to any living soul.

One wonders what type of father, in his right senses, would do such a thing in this day and age. The only 'crime' of the young hapless girl was that she had requested for her school fees – something which was her legitimate right.

The scar this man has engraved on his daughter's mind and the emotional torture he has subjected her to, are simply unimaginable, unforgettable and almost unforgivable.

If he could do this to his biological daughter simply because she had requested for her school fees, one wonders what he could have done to others. He is simply capable of anything and everything, including the unthinkable.

Thankfully, the law has caught up with him and we can only hope that the 18-year jail term slapped on him would serve as a lesson to his likes and deter others from doing same.

Unfortunately, Victor Danso is just one of the several irresponsible fathers around whose wicked acts are yet to be made public.

Many such irresponsible and almost insane characters get away with their wicked acts and continue to perpetuate the illegality because we live in a country where culture and tradition often clash with the rights of children and women, for which reason many of such abominable acts never get reported to the law enforcement agencies.

In many instances, victims of incest or other forms of abuses  live silently with their pain and bitter ordeal while the perpetrators walk around shoulder high and continue to cause more harm in secret.

We should be doing more public education and sensitisation for people to be eager to report cases of sexual abuse to the law enforcement agencies – whether the perpetrators are family relations or not.

We should embark on a concerted effort to discourage society from stigmatising victims of sexual abuse and rather encourage them to seek the appropriate medical attention and counselling.

Unfortunately, our state agencies tasked to handle such cases are under-resourced and in many instances, victims of sexual abuse do not get the requisite guidance and counselling.

Our focus has largely been on punishing the culprits rather than rehabilitating the victims and ensuring that they fully recover into the right frame of mind to continue with their lives.