The Crusading GUIDE can confirm that plans are far advanced to have Soldier Bar, a notorious child sex base at Circle, Accra, demolished because of the exploitation of children being perpetrated there. Top Government officials at a meeting held Wednesday night decided to urge the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs to ensure that the base was destroyed. Already, the Bar has been closed down because of the recent raid conducted, during which 334 girls were rescued. The operation came as a result of hard-core evidence submitted to the Ghana Police by The Crusading GUIDE concerning the activities being carried out in that area. The Crusading GUIDE's visit to the closed down place showed that it had been deserted. When this reporter visited the Madina base of the Department of Social Welfare where the minors were being kept, there was evidence that the teenagers - between ages 12 and 16 - were running away from their Madina camp, while officials of the Department and the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC) looked on helplessly. Before the raid, both institutions had assured the Ghana Police that if the girls were rescued, shelter and other logistics would be provided for them. This, coupled with the video tape obtained undercover by The Crusading GUIDE reporter, served as the basis for the Police to strike at Soldier Bar. However, it has now become clear that both Social Welfare and MOWAC could not keep the girls well, leading to over 100 escaping. Checks indicated that only 15 of them were available, with the rest having escaped. The Deputy Minister of MOWAC blamed the Department of Social Welfare for the children's escape, but some officials of the Department also pointed an accusing finger at MOWAC, explaining that the Ministry, which had oversight responsibility over the whole operation, did not coordinate well. Joseph Benefo Darkwa, the spokesperson of the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID), confirmed that the Police, after arresting the entire 334 girls, released 161 to MOWAC and Social Welfare to continue their part, "so you see, we the Ghana Police did our part so nobody should try to say we did not do our work well", said the CID spokesperson. There were interesting developments at the Madina shelter where the girls were kept. People who had gone there as relatives to visit them (girls) ended up 'smuggling' them away. By the close of Wednesday, the supposed relatives had taken most of the girls away. When The Crusading GUIDE visited the deserted Soldier Bar Wednesday, some of the girls who had assembled around the area told this reporter that they wanted government to take them to school so that they could stop offering their bodies for money. "You think we don't also want to work in the bank and wear suits? We want to also go to school, so tell govern¬ment that if it wants us to stop this trade, it should take us to school and not allow Police people to come and arrest us and take us away. Now what do you want us to eat?", said Dzifa (real name withheld). Dzifa said that some of her friends were still with the Social Welfare authorities. According to her, if she discovered that her colleagues were being educated or given any employable skill, she would go and join them to acquire knowledge or skill. "I really don't like this job, but I have no choice; somebody should pray for me", Dzifa concluded. Source: The Crusading Guide