The Wa Circuit Court has sentenced a 35-year-old man to 69 years imprisonment for defilement.

This was after the court, presided over by His Honor Jonathan Avugu, determined that Ahmed Rashid Anaata, a local master of ceremonies (MC) was guilty of having sex with seven minors (girls) contrary to section 101 of the Criminal Offenses Act, Act 29.

According to court documents, the first docket involved 3 minors and contained 6 counts of defilement. The second docket also involved 3 minors and three counts of defilement whilst the third dockets had one minor involved and one count of defilement. A fourth docket was dismissed.

Reading the full one hour and 10 minutes judgement, Judge Jonathon Avugu found Rashid guilty on 10 counts of defilement.

He will however serve a concurrent prison term of 22 years.

Throughout the three weeks trial, Rashid had denied all the charges levelled against him while maintaining his innocence.

On Friday, the accused person had opened his defense, mounted the witness box, and was cross-examined by the prosecutor, but without a lawyer.  

He had admitted that he knew two out of the three survivors mentioned in one of the dockets, with one of them being his stepmother’s daughter.  

Rashid also admitted that he has a wife with two children aged about five years and two years, and had also impregnated an 18-year-old girl, whom the prosecution said was a Junior High School pupil.  

The accused person, during cross-examination, also admitted that he was once accused by his aunt some years ago of sleeping with her daughter. 

The prosecution, led by Mr Saeed Abdul Shakur, a Principal State Attorney in the Upper West Region, during the cross-examination, put it to the accused person that he lured the victims with food to defile them, which the accused person denied. 

He also put it to the accused person that he exploited his relations with one of the survivor’s mother to sexually molest the survivor, but he once again denied it.  

The prosecution again suggested to the accused person that when his wife left for her family house after a misunderstanding ensued between them for about three months, he used that period as a “holiday” to have sex with girls, which he again denied.  

But the medical officer at the Wa Municipal Hospital, Dr Alhassan Mohammed Mubarak confirmed the assaults which added up to the sentencing of the convict.

Dr. Mubarik revealed that all the girls had their hymens broken.

Also the victims were aged be­tween 12 and 14 years.

Meanwhile, the complainant Eliasu Baba has expressed his gratitude to the court for the swift manner in which justice was served and also to the media for the coverage.

Equally grateful was the Upper West Regional Director of the Department of Gender under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Charity Bature.