A 17 year old girl who has been forced into marriage has returned to school.
This was after a court has ordered her 84 year old father Mallam Gado, to send his daughter to school.
Mr. Gado was reported to have collected the bride price of his daughter who is a Senior High School student.
The decision was taken after the investigator told the Accra Circuit Court presided over by Mrs. Abena Adjin-Doku that the girl who is very intelligent had always complained that she wanted to continue her education but was forced to stop after her father refused to continue paying for her education because she did not want to marry.
The 84 year old man has been subsequently ordered to pay his daughter’s school fees at the beginning of the academic year and has been bonded to be of good behavior till the final determination of the case.
The case has been adjourned to October 23, 2015.
The suspect was charged with attempt to commit crime to wit: compulsion of marriage. He denied any wrong doing and had initially insisted that if his daughter Salamatu Gado did not consent to the arranged marriage he would not be able to continue to cater for her education.
He has been granted bail in the sum of GH¢8,000 with two sureties.
Narrating events leading to the arrest of the suspect, the prosecuting officer Detective Inspector Kofi Atimbire told the court that the victim Salamatu Gado is aged 17 and a student of Cosmos Senior High School and the biological daughter of Malam Gado.
According to him, the accused person is a security man and works at Pokuase adding that the student lives with him and her mum Barikisu Gado at Pokuase a suburb of Accra.
The prosecuting officer stated that on July 29, 2015 at about 2:30 pm police received information that the security man was giving out his daughter to marriage under duress.
He stated that police proceeded to the accused person’s house where they found him and had him arrested and during investigations he told the police he had indeed collected money from a certain Yakubu who wanted to marry his daughter.
The police officer said Malam Gado however refused to give more details about the said Yakubu but said there was nothing he could do to stop the marriage.
He indicated that the wife of the suspect who was also invited to the police station told police that once the father of the victim had agreed to the marriage she had no choice than to accept the decision of her husband.
He said thorough investigations were conducted after which the suspect was arraigned for the offence.
Source: mordernghana
