Editorial: Should Men Found Guilty Of Defilement Be Sent To Prison?

The Circuit Court at Tokor, in the Ketu South Municipality, presided over by Joseph Ofosu Behome, has sentenced a 36-year-old father to 10 years imprisonment with hard labour, for impregnating his daughter.

According to a Ghana News Agency (GNA) report, the convict, Kofitse Zigah, an electrician residing at Adoteykope, a suburb of Aflao, defiled his 15-year-old daughter on two occasions, resulting in the pregnancy. He pleaded guilty to the charge of defilement and was jailed accordingly.

According to the story, the complainant, Miss Faustina Elikplim Korwu, who is the Assembly member for Avoeme West Electoral Area, on May 1, 2025 led the victim to complain to the Aflao Police, which led to the convict’s arrest.

The story continued that after the report was made to the peace officers that the victim’s father had slept with her, the Police issued the complainant with a medical form, which was taken to Ketu South Municipal hospital and the returned report revealed that the victim was 15 weeks pregnant.

This is not the first time Ghanaians are reading that a man had slept with his own daughter resulting in pregnancy. Indeed, several of these abominable stories had happened in the past and The Chronicle is happy that the right punishment had been meted out to the irresponsible father, in the case we have just referenced.

But whilst conceding to the fact that the court has imposed the right sentence on the erring father, we need to also look at the other side of the coin. The fact that this young man had slept with his own daughter clearly depicts that they are both coming from a poor home. The big question then is: who is going to take care of the impregnated girl and the yet to be born child, since the financier of the household who committed the crime is in jail?

This is a big question Ghana, as a state, should have answered long ago, but that has not happened. In Europe and United States of America the welfare system is working effectively, but regrettably, the same cannot be said about our side of the world -Ghana.

Anytime a crime, such as defilement, is committed, the state is only interested in the prosecution of the culprit and does not care a hoot about the abused girl-child, especially when the sexual intercourse results in pregnancy.

Since most of the defilement victims come from poor homes, the child conceived and born as a result of this crime and their mothers are left to fend for themselves through no fault of theirs. We simply do not have the welfare system that would have taken care of these children and their innocent mothers.

In the end, these children would grow up struggling to make ends meet because they did not get any proper formal education. This is a serious issue, but the state has not averted her mind to the suffering of these young mothers and their children. To tackle the problem head-on, The Chronicle is suggesting to the Attorney General to liaise with Parliament to amend the necessary portions of the Criminal Code that send men found guilty of defilement to prison.

The proposed amendment, in our view, should reflect that these guilty men, whilst serving their prison sentences should be attached to the Metropolitan, Municipal or District assemblies (MMDAs) where the crime was committed. They would then be forced to do menial jobs such as desilting of gutters and sweeping the streets. At the end of the day’s work, they should be sent back to prison. This means they should be reporting to work from prison every day until they finish serving their sentences.

The MMDAs should also pay the wages they would have earned to the defiled girl-child and the yet to be born baby as a result of the defilement. Since we do not have any good welfare system, The Chronicle thinks if this policy is implemented, it will help to alleviate the plight of these defiled victims and the children they have brought forth.

The current situation where the convicts are kept in prison for ten, fifteen or twenty five years when children born out of their crime are suffering because the state has failed to take good care of them is not the best. We seriously need to reform the Criminal Code to give reprieve to children born as a result of their mothers being defiled.

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