Child rights organization Challenging Heights has threatened to formally petition key government institutions if authorities fail to immediately arrest and prosecute the stepmother accused of scalding her three-year-old stepdaughter with hot water in Winneba.
Founder James Kofi Annan, speaking on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey, described the alleged act as “attempted murder” and questioned why the suspect, identified as Akaima, a Liberian national, remains free while the victim receives emergency care for severe genital burns at the Trauma and Specialist Hospital.
We shouldn’t even ask the police to arrest these people; they should immediately arrest this woman. This woman is there walking freely,” Annan stated. “If by close of today the woman hasn’t been arrested, we’ll petition the Gender Ministry, the IGP, the Attorney General, and we’ll release her picture because this should not be allowed.”
The organization insists both parents must be held accountable, emphasizing that the father shares responsibility for the abuse that occurred while the child was vacationing with him. Challenging Heights is also calling on the government to strengthen child protection institutions like the Department of Social Welfare, DOVVSU, and the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit, citing weak enforcement and chronic underfunding as factors exposing children to abuse.
The victim suffered the injuries after allegedly being punished for bedwetting, in a case that has sparked national outrage and renewed calls for better child protection measures.
Source:Lovinghananews.com
