UPPER WEST CHRAJ SAVES GIRL, 17 (PAGE 21, MIRROR, MAY 8, 2010)

From Chris Nunoo, Wa

THE dream of a 17-year-old junior high school student in Wa to further her education to the university level was nearly truncated but for the swift intervention of the Upper West Regional office of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).
Miss Tampaa Mwinikuma did not have anybody to cater for her needs following the death of her mother and when a cousin, Yaw Larry, volunteered to help her to attend school at Elubo in the Western region, she quickly grabbed the offer.
However, Larry’s offer turned out to be a bait to force her to marry his brother and the dowry used to defray her mother’s funeral expenses.
Mr Ubeidu Siddick, Upper West Regional Manager of CHRAJ, who briefed The Mirror, said Mwinikuma refused and resisted Larry’s diabolical plan, packed her belongings and returned to Wa.
Mr Ubeidu said Mwinikuma, who used to live with her mother, completed JHS in 2008 but could not further her course because she had to take care of her divorcee mother who was seriously sick at the time.
He said the mother, however, passed away a year later and her mother’s family from Kunfabiala, a village near Wa, came for the corpse and organised the funeral rites.
Mr Ubeidu said after the burial, Mwinikuma, who could not trace the whereabouts of her father and three other siblings, did not have anybody and did not know where to go and so when Larry, who resides in Elubo, offered to help her, she thought it was God-send.
Mr Ubeidu said Mwinikuma obliged and decided to accompany Larry to Elubo because she was convinced at the time that Larry was going to engage her in a trade or support her to further her education.
He said that was not to be as upon arrival, Larry insisted that Mwinikuma should marry his brother so that he could recoup the expenses the family incurred during the funeral of Mwinikuma’s late mother from the dowry to be paid by the supposed husband.
He said Mwinikuma rejected the proposal made by Larry on countless occasions and this resulted in a quarrel as a result of which Mwinikuma one day packed her belongings and left Elubo for Wa.
Mr Ubeidu said Larry followed up to Wa and tried for the second time to woo Mwinikuma back to Elubo but a neighbour got wind of the issue and intervened, thereby compelling Larry to abandon the idea.
He said the neighbour, after hearing the story, decided to lodge a complaint with the Upper West Regional office of the CHRAJ.
He said upon further deliberations, which involved the parents of Larry and other relatives, Larry’s parents expressed disappointment at his behaviour and denied knowledge of his plans and strongly warned him to stop.
Mr Ubeidu said both parties later agreed to the Commission’s decision that Mwinikuma should stay with a close friend of her late mother, Madam Zeinab Musah Porko, and continue with her school while the family of Larry paid her a visit once in a while.
He said Larry had since gone back to his base at Elubo.