For over six months market women at Tetrem in the Ashanti Region say they have recorded very poor sales, a situation they blame on the rape of a teenager on the bare floor of the market.

The market women want traditional authorities to pacify the offended gods to lift the repercussions of the indecent act – which is considered a taboo – in order to resurrect the market.

The 13-year-old girl who was defiled at the market is said to have been caught up in a web of constant sexual abuse at the hands of her aunt’s husband, known only as Koo Fori.

The teenage girl lived a normal life with her parents until five years ago when the icy hands of death snatched them away.

Her aunt offered to take care of her, but any comfort she may have anticipated from her aunt remained a wish, as the woman subjected her physical and verbal abuse.

She would always accuse the innocent girl of being a bad cook.

The teenager's anguish in her aunt’s house worsened when the woman traveled to Accra. Her husband, Koo Fori, took advantage of her absence to defile and turned the teenager into a sex object.

The traumatic experience compelled a poor girl to seek refuge with her grandmother, Maame Ampomaa.

The teenager's grand mother, Ampomaa

Even there her auntie’s husband followed up and sexually abused the teenage girl. On one occasion, he is said to have taken the girl at knifepoint on the bare floor of the market square.

Threats from Koo Fori forced the girl to keep her ordeal to herself until she was found to be pregnant, apparently from the violent sexual encounters.

Community leaders covered up for Koo Fori, who confessed to raping her. With the assistance of the local chief, the case was treated as a ‘family matter’.

Though Koo Fori has accepted to take care of the baby upon delivery, he has turned deaf ears to the requests for the upkeep of the pregnant girl, forcing her grandmother to cater for her with her meager resources. She remains out of school while the man responsible for her woes walks free.