I Didn't Clean Victim With Red Handkerchief
OMALE OJONUGKLU Ukwa, an evangelist from Nigeria who allegedly defiled a 14-year-old girl with a colleague evangelist, has denied that he used a red handkerchief to clean the blood from the victim's vagina after he had sex with her.
Ukwa, who belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is on a good news mission to win souls for Christ.
Under cross-examination by the prosecutor, ASP Sarah Ekua Acquah, Ukwa told the Accra Gender-Based Violence Court presided over by Georgina Mensah-Dasta that even though he had “a red face towel I use to clean my face”, it was his personal face towel and he would never use it for such a thing.
This was after the prosecutor put it to him that after he had sex with the victim, who was bleeding after the sexual act, he used a handkerchief to wipe the blood.
The accused person also denied that he and his alleged accomplice, Thatayaone Keeng who is from Botswana, took turns to defile the girl and said he never sent the girl on errands.
Led in his examination-in-chief by his counsel Edward Doh, the accused person told the court that in February and March 2010, he had all his evangelism activities on his planner.
The evangelist explained that every Saturday, after morning companionship service, he would go preaching to people, whose names he gave as Mary, Martha, Miriam Jessica, Jennifer and Justina.
The accused person, who kept on repeating the same names and the same activities for about ten minutes, also admitted that he gave the victim a spray because “My Lord it was not working and I wanted to dispose it of but she said she wanted it.”
When asked where he got the spray from, he said it was given to him by a church member but anytime he tried spraying it, it would not work.
Ukwa also said he did not know why the victim would allege he had defiled her because he never did such a thing and denied the allegation concerning the “red face” towel.
The case was adjourned to today for the prosecutor to continue with the cross-examination.
On Monday, the evangelist said that he knew the complainant, who the alleged victim lives with, as a neighbour.
Even though the accused person admitted that as missionaries, he and his alleged accomplice Mr. Keeng were acquaintances, he said they did not do everything together.
Explaining further, he stated that he and another Elder called Walter had been paired among the group of missionaries, so he was closer to Elder Walter than Mr. Keeng.
The prosecutor, who presented the facts of the case, told the court that the complainant was a dress maker, with the victim being her house-help in Accra.
The accused persons occasionally sent the girl to buy ingredients which they used for cooking.
According to the prosecutor, on February 1, 2010, the first accused, after calling the victim under the pretext of sending her on an errand, asked her whether she had ever been kissed; a question the girl answered in the negative.
Mrs. Acquah, the prosecutor, said the evangelist then called her to his room, where he pushed her onto his bed and forcibly had sex with her, after which the second accused, Keeng, who was in the room all this while, also had his turn.
They allegedly warned her not to disclose the ordeal to her madam or else she would be sent back to her village.
By Fidelia Achama