More men are these days reporting at the charge offices of police stations in the Easter Region with swollen and bruised faces inflicted by their wives or girlfriends. The alarming situation is said to be due to desperate women taking the law into their own hands to enforce compliance of marriage rites and house-keeping money. Mrs Eunice Annor, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) in-charge of the Eastern Region Police Domestic Violence Victim Support Unit (DOWSU) made these known to The Spectator in an interview last Thursday. She said the women often complained that anytime they demanded from their men maintenance or house-keeping money for them to perform their marriage rites, arguments ensued and this compelled them to use force. According to her, there have been cases where children were instigated by their mothers against their fathers, resulting in further problems at home. ASP Annor said in 2008, nine men reported they had been assaulted by their female partners. She said just between July and September this year, of the 85 assault cases made, eight were cases of men reporting assault against their wives or girlfriends. ASP Annor said though the cases of men battering their women were more, those of the women beating their men were very severe. "Some of the men often reported at the police station with swollen faces with bruises and red eyes from the blows they received from their women," she said. "Others had to be sent to the various hospitals in the New Juaben municipality for treatment before they could speak or write their statements," she added. The DOWSU Regional boss said of the fifty-nine (59) men and the eight (8) women were arrested, nineteen (19) were sent to the law court, twenty-one (21) were closed and forty-seven (47) still under investigations. Source: The Spectator