A Tamale Circuit Court, has convicted 25-year-old Adam Arafat, to seven years imprisonment for defilement.

The suspect who admitted to the offence during interrogation, pleaded not guilty in court, compelling the case to travel the full length.

Speaking to the media after the court ruling, the Coordinator of the Domestic Violent and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, ASP Emmanuel Holortu described the victory as sweet.

He explained that it was a departure from several rape and defilement cases that were either withdrawn or could not be pursued because of lack of cooperation from the victims.

According to the Northern Regional Coordinator of DOVVSU, the case was reported on February 10, 2020, by a woman who had travelled from Bawku to Tamale to seek medical care.  

He said the victim's mother had travelled with her mother from Bawku to Tamale after she (the mother) had heard an advert on the radio portraying the convict, Adam Arafat, as a spiritualist who cured various kinds of ailments.

ASP Emmanuel Holortu said the woman travelled with her 11-year old daughter to Tamale to meet the supposed spiritualist after she had called him for a discussion.

He said the Police report indicated that the victim arrived in Tamale late in the evening, at about 8pm and met the convicted person, who took her and her mother to an uncompleted building suspected to be his shrine in Gbayinli, a suburb of Tamale.

The report added that Adam Arafat asked the woman to go back into town and buy a bottle of schnapps for performance of rituals.

The suspect (Adam Arafat) then lured the girl into having sex with her after the mother left and warned her not to tell her mother or else he will sacrifice her to the gods. 

ASP Holortu said when they were leaving the shrine, the victim's mother noticed that the little girl was behaving strangely, so she questioned her until she revealed what happened.

The woman therefore reported the matter to the Police and the suspect was arrested, arraigned before court and convicted.