“ I struggled with them until I became too weak to fight. One of them squeezed my breast and I really felt pain in it. The other one covered my mouth with his hand and, defiled me first. Later the other one also took over and had sex with me. They kicked me hard afterward.”

This is how the then 16-year girl says she was defiled by two Senior High school boys in a village near Bawku in the Upper East region.

Aisha (not her real name) was on a visit to a village, near Bawku, to deliver drugs to her sick father when the boys reportedly subjected her to the ordeal.

Aisha is now 19 years old and has a two-year-old baby girl but cannot tell who the father of the child is.

Three years on, her mother, Meimuna Awindago, and Municipal Education authorities have been trekking to court to seek justice since 2016.

They have been forced to relocate from Upper East to Ashanti Region because the family cannot withstand pressure from relatives to withdraw the case of the alleged suspects from court.

None of the alleged culprits is also prepared to accept responsibility for his actions.

Aisha explained that, she had turned down a love proposal from one of the boys. He later teamed up with another to trail and defile her in a forest reserve at Atuba in the Bawku area.

“They saw me and as they approached I realized they wanted to attack me. I took to my heels, they threw their bikes and chased me until I became weak and weaker, stumbled, and fell. The particular guy I saw at Highways approached me first and gave me hefty slaps and hit me hard on the head and back. I started crying and they pulled me to a shade of a nearby tree.”

And that was when the two boys took turns on Aisha to defile her. Aisha said she was unable to inform her parents or any relative about the incident for fear of being punished.

Little did she know the abuse could result in pregnancy.

Aisha said her late father was temperamental and she could not have discussed such an issue with him at the time. “He would blow it up to the hearing of others.” She weeps.

Aisha’s sister too was not an option. “My sister is even worse. The little issue you have with her, she would beat you up. Due to that I hardly have a conversation with her.”

 So Aisha kept the defilement case to myself. But before she could muster courage to talk about it, she was already five months pregnant.

Subsequently, it was discovered, and she had to name the alleged offenders who denied the accusation.

Police in Bawku arrested the boys, and for two years, Aisha’s mother and education authorities have been trekking to court.

Director in-charge of Girl Child Education at the Bawku Municipal Education Office Madam Abolga Matilda lamented over the delays in court proceedings and attempts to influence the course of justice.

Aisha’s mother Meimuna Awindago says, “The way life has been difficult, I can't really take care of the child. As we speak my husband is late and my other daughter too is sick.”

Madam Meimuna has to work every day under bad weather within Tontokrom community in the Ashanti region to fend for herself and the family.

“Every month I buy drugs costing not less than Ghc100. I have to work to feed myself and the child, which is very difficult for me.” she lamented.

A few days after the incident Aisha’s father passed on and she has been unable to go back to school.

Aisha’s brother, 26-year old Noah Amadu Adams said their father was shocked when the news got to him on his sickbed.

“I think the news deteriorated my father’s condition.’” Adams explains.

Aisha was in JHS 1 at Kpalwega Junior High School when the incident occurred.  Her colleagues just wrote the 2019 Basic Education Certification Examination without her. She said that alone is eating her up.

“I feel mentally traumatized whenever I see my schoolmates with whom we could have completed school together.”

Aisha’s relatives say they do not have good legal representation in court.

Her mother said she is worried about the outcome of the case and that her granddaughter could remain fatherless.