Fred Smith
Officers of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service yesterday stopped the marriage between a 13-year-old girl and a man almost twice her age.
The young teenager said she agreed to the marriage to save her parents from shame.
The four-day-old marriage was brought to an abrupt end after family members alleged to have been involved in the arrangement, were arrested.
The police picked up five persons when they visited the family house where the young girl was forced to marry the man after her 18-year-old sister, who was to marry the man, absconded on the day of the wedding.
Those arrested included the 25-year-old husband who was said to be a returnee from Libya, and his 13- year-old ‘wife’.
The rest were the father and mother of the girl who forced the underage girl into the marriage that took place last Sunday at Ablekuma, a suburb of Accra, and the runaway elder sister.
Police sources at the DOVVSU confirmed that the family members had been invited by the police to assist with investigations since they were all involved in the marriage ceremony.
Complainant
A Joy FM reporter, Fred Smith, who was the complainant, went with the police officers to the family house at Block Factory, Ablekuma, in the Ga Central District.
It would be recalled that DAILY GUIDE reported in its Tuesday May 21, edition that a 13-year-old Junior High School (JHS) form one pupil had been forced to marry her elder sister’s boyfriend.
The groom, Mustapha Mohammed, 25, was a Ghanaian domiciled in Libya, who had returned to the country to marry his lover when his bride disappeared a few hours to the wedding.
After waiting for hours with no sign of the bride showing up, the 13-year-old girl opted to take the place of her sister and married Mustapha to save her family from shame.
While guests at the wedding ceremony were surprised, the incident left residents talking about the bizarre situation.
After the ceremony, the young girl spent the night with the husband in the same room and was also not able to go to school on Monday.
The young girl told Joy News which broke the story: “I don’t want my mother and my father to cry”.
She criticized her elder sister’s action, saying, “What my sister did was not good…She ran away”. She said she did not know why the sister did that, and she married the man to save her parents from shame.
She criticized her elder sister’s action, saying, “What my sister did was not good…She ran away”. She said she did not know why the sister did that, and she married the man to save her parents from shame.
Information gathered by DAILY GUIDE indicated that the groom had been in a relationship with the 18-year-old sister of the girl for some time now and decided to marry her last weekend.
It was therefore unclear what might have been the cause of her sudden disappearance and the decision by her sister to take her place. However, sources said her sister decided to marry the groom to prevent the family from being humiliated by the action of the older sister.
Disgrace
The husband, Mustapha Mohammed, narrated to Joy News the near disgrace the girl’s sister caused both families by absconding on the very day they had agreed to marry, and at a time when elders from both families had gathered and were ready for the ceremony to commence.
He explained that after a long search without success, and to avoid any embarrassment to either side, he agreed to marry the 13-year-old girl after he was prevailed upon to do so.
The man told Joy News he intended leaving the country after about a week to Libya, to enable the girl to further her education.
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