Chief Leads Attack On NPP Girl

Selassie Kartey, victim of the assault The Paramount Chief of Goaso Traditional Area in the Brong Ahafo region, Nana Baffour Akwasi Bosomprah is reported to have ordered his men to beat up Selassie Kartey, an office attendant at the Goaso New Patriotic Party (NPP) office for not kneeling before him.

The 28-year-old office attendant sustained varying degrees of injury in the unprovoked assault which occurred last Monday around 8:30 pm in front of the NPP office.

According to a medical report signed by George Kunyangna, a Medical Assistant at the Goaso Government Hospital on February 5, Selassie Kartey sustained a lesion on the right thigh and abrasion on the left hand as a result of the assault.

Briefing DAILY GUID E about the incident, Abena Darkowaa, the victim's mother, said she was in the house that fateful evening when her daughter ran to inform her that Nana Bosomprah had ordered his men to beat her mercilessly for not kneeling before him.

According to her, Selassie was operating her MTN-MTN service as usual after work when the Paramount Chief and his men approached her demanding to know what she was doing at that time of the evening.

But before she could respond to the question, the men accompanying the Paramount Chief demanded that she knelt before speaking to him.

Madam Darkowaa said because the victim did not realize that the Paramount Chief was among the men who approached her, she refused to comply with the directive.

This, she noted, infuriated Nana Bosomprah who ordered his men to discipline the victim.

Immediately, the able-bodied men who were wielding strong canes subjected the victim to marathon session of beating.

She disclosed that after her daughter had come to inform her about her ruthless beating, she went to enquire why that happened and the Paramount Chief told her that he ordered the beating because the victim did not show him respect.

Madam Darkowaa pointed out that to her utter surprise, the Chief's Linguist, Opanin Asamoah who was among the men accompanying Nana Bosomprah when the incident happened, said if he had known the victim was her daughter, he would have ordered her to be beaten the more.

She said when she threatened to take the case up because she felt her daughter had been assaulted unnecessarily, the Paramount Chief told her she could go to hell and that he cared less.

Madam Darkowaa claimed that the Goaso Police refused to attend to her daughter when she (victim) went to lodge a complaint, asking her to come along with her mother.

She revealed that when she accompanied her daughter to the police station, they were detained without any charges and later released.

Madam Darkowaa indicated that on the third day after the assault, the victim who until the beatings was hale and hearty started complaining of abdominal and bodily pains.

Against this background, she struggled to secure a medical form from the police and sent the victim to the Goaso Government Hospital on the fourth day where she was treated and discharged.

Madam Darkowaa said just a day after the victim had been discharged from the hospital, the police again came to arrest her together with her elder sister, Ama Acheamponmaa, and detained them for sometime before releasing them.

The poor mother, who strongly believes that the Paramount Chief is behind this police harassment on her children, has appealed to the Brong Ahafo Regional House of Chiefs to intervene on her behalf so that her children could have peace to live in the town.

She said she suspects that she and her children were being haunted by the Paramount Chief in line with his promise that he would make life unbearable for residents of the town who are supporters of the NPP.

Meanwhile, when contacted, Nana Bosomprah admitted the encounter but denied ordering the beating of the young girl.

He said he was patrolling the town with his men as usual to ensure that the directive that residents below age 18 should not be seen in town after 8:00pm was respected when he came across the 28-year-old NPP office attendant.

Nana Bosomprah noted that his resolve to enforce the directive has no political connotation, saying it was purely for the common good of the Goaso Township.

From Morgan Owusu, Kumasi