A 32-year-old married woman from Gongnia in the Navrongo municipality, who is a victim of rape, is yet to get justice as her suspected attacker has escaped from police custody.
The suspect, identified as Kwame Abass "presido", had been arrested by the police in Navrongo on August 1, 2022, for the alleged crime but escaped from cells same under mysterious circumstances.
The police, who confirmed the escape to GhanaWeb's Upper East correspondent, Senyalah Castro, stated that he got away as he was being led to a room for interrogation.
The police acknowledged that the escape happened due to negligence on the part of three of its officers who were on duty that day, adding that the said officers have been given ten days in accordance with police protocol to find the suspect.
As at the time of filing this report, it had been the twentieth day (20) but the suspect was yet to be produced to face the law.
The escape of the suspect and the police inability to apprehend him has left the victim and her family questioning the conduct of the police and whether justice would elude them.
The victim and family also fear the suspect on the loose may sneak back in to the community to attack them or neighbours who supported his arrest.
“The guy (the alleged attacker) was arrested around 9am the morning after I went to the police station in Navrongo to report the issue,” said the husband of the victim (name withheld)
“Then around 4pm, the Police CID called me and said the guy escaped. Now, we wonder why and how the guy escaped.”
Caesar Ananga, the assemblyman for the Gongnia Electoral Area, who has been at the forefront of investigations into the attack, described the news of the suspect’s escape as worrying, but said the victim’s family would press for justice regardless.
Rape incident
The incident happened on August 1 ,2022, as the victim left home early dawn to assist her mistress in a porridge and bread-making business near the St. John Bosco's College of Education.
Her attacker, who had laid concealed in a bush near the fence of the C.K Tedam University, pounced on her at knife-point beat, stabbed her once in her left ear and many times in her left thigh before raping her.
The suspect, according to the victim, strangled and pinned her to the ground before he had his way with her.
The suspect later abandoned her and she was found helpless by a pastor who together with the victim's husband took her to the War Memorial Hospital for treatment.
“I was going to work on Monday early dawn around 4am,” said the tearful victim, recounting her ordeal. “Behind UDS [the University for Development Studies, now C K Tedam University], there are some teaks there, so the guy was hiding there.
“When I got there, he attacked me with a cutlass. I tried to escape. I ran and he kicked me down. He hit me with the cutlass and I struggled and fought with him. I shouted, but no one came to help.
“He said I should bring my phone, and I gave [it to] him. He said I should bring money and I told him, ’I don’t have money with me.’ He attacked me again and we struggled there.
“He pressed my neck against the ground and he pulled me into the bushes and he raped me,” the distressed woman said.
Missing sandals and arrest
In the heat of the struggle between victim and attacker, both of them lost their sandals.
The following morning, a family friend of the victim who had heard about the incident visited the scene and was able to retrieve some sandals. Among the discarded shoes was one piece of footwear belonging to the alleged attacker. Family members of the woman in hospital believe he forgot to retrieve it as he fled from the scene.
The family launched an investigation, using the footwear. Through that sandal, a family friend who had gone to the scene of the incident earlier was able to identify the alleged attacker, through a junior brother of the attacker who identified the shoe.
Coincidentally, reports say that Abass had also asked his junior brother to go and fetch his sandal from the scene that same morning.
The alleged attacker’s family denied access to him and denied that he had been involved in any wrongdoing. They tried to keep people away but the police were called in and he was arrested.
Anger among residents
The escape of the suspect is gradually building anger among residents of Navrongo who believe the victim may have paid his way out of the cells.
Some residents who spoke to GhanaWeb on grounds of anonymity, said it would be difficult for a suspect to escape from the station on the blindside of the police considering its architectural design.
"The police station has a wall and gates. Even the main building where the police keep suspects is security tight. So, how can someone escape from there."- quizzed a resident
"The officers are always there and there's no way a suspect can move out without someone seeing the suspect.
"Someone among the officers helped the suspect to run away and the police must make sure to punish those officers and also find the suspect wherever he is to face the law for what he has done"- said another resident.
Meanwhile, the Navrongo municipal police commander, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Kingsley Kanda, in his latest response on the case said the three complicit officers have been reported to higher authorities for the necessary disciplinary measures to be against them.
He appealed for calm and urged the public to help with the police with intel that can lead to the arrest of the suspect.
He would however not comment further on the case.
The victim was raped at dawn on August 1, 2022