POLICE in the Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi, have arrested twenty-four (24) men suspected to be involved in the stripping and beating of a lady accused of theft.
The incident occurred at Adum, Kumasi, on February 17, 2017.
This was after the woman reported the assault to the police.
The 24 suspects are currently in the custody of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in Kumasi.
According to police sources, a screening exercise is expected to take place to identify those who took part in the mob action.
A video circulating on social media, detailed this instant mob-justice from last week Friday, which saw some men beating the woman in the streets, with some of them attempting to insert their feet into her private parts, until she lost consciousness.
The woman was allegedly caught attempting to steal GH¢1,100 from a shop owner in the PZ Area in Adum, Kumasi.
Her whereabouts, since reporting the incident to the police, were unknown.
A number of civil society groups have condemned the action of the mob including pressure group, OccupyGhana, who have demanded that the police arrest and prosecute to the full extent of the law, persons in the video seen stripping and sexually assaulting the woman.
Following the incident, the Ghana Police Service gave the assurance that it was employing the use of technology to arrest and prosecute the offenders.
“The Police have commenced an exercise, employing the use of modern technology, including cameras, to arrest and prosecute all persons who take the law into their own hands and exact instant justice,” a statement from the Police Service said.
The Women’s Wing of the Progressive Alliance Media Communicators last Monday petitioned the minister of gender, children and social protection to begin investigations into the mob attack on the woman alleged to have stolen money at the Adum Market in Kumasi.
The petition asserted that the attack on the woman was inhuman and cannot be tolerated in a democratic society which is governed by rule of law.
Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister, Madam Otiko Afisa Djaba, has also condemned the mob action and sexual assault of the alleged female thief, charging the police to bring the perpetrators to book.
“I know the police will crack this case if they need to, this is pure CID action,” Ms. Djaba said on Monday, February 20, 2017 as she called for justice for the victim.
On 17 February, 2017 a young lady was stripped naked, beaten and paraded barefooted on the streets by a marauding crowd of men, who repeatedly pushed her down, forced her legs open for mobile phone pictures and videos to be taken of her private parts, while others violently inserted their toes into her maw and smacked her buttocks simultaneously in a noisy skirmish.
Desperate supplications by the fair-skinned alleged lady thief, whose clothes were all torn off except for her red brassiere, did not deter her Akan-speaking accusers from unleashing instantaneous justice on her.
The irate crowd slapped, shoved, pulled and pushed the lady in every direction while groping her private parts.
In a short video that captured the whole incident, the lady is seen falling motionless and unresponsive on the street at a point, but the crowd kept hitting her and forcing her legs open.
Intermittent shouts by one or two men, who pleaded on the lady’s behalf, did not help matters as the crowd kept violently slapping and kicking the alleged thief.
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