PHOTO: Suspect Abraham Johnson
After he admitted raping a girl, age 11, a 22-year-old man at Barteljam gold camp in Liberia’s southeastern Grand Gedeh County has reportedly asked for forgiveness for committing this dastardly act.
Rape is a nonbailable crime under Liberian law, with the maximum penalty being life imprisonment and this menace.
Last Friday, September 11, 2020, President George Manneh Weah issued a proclamation declaring rape as a national emergency.
The bold move by the President followed the successful conclusion of a 2-day National Anti-Rape and Sexual Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) Conference that was convened by Government to validate the National Roadmap on Rape and SGBV produced by the Inter-ministerial taskforce set up by him a few weeks ago, according to an Executive Mansion press release.
Abraham Johnson, commonly known as Teddy Rat, reportedly admitted committing the act, after being arrested and investigated by police in the area.
Johnson is now in police custody and he has now been charged and sent to Court..
According to reports from this southeastern Liberian county, the 11-year-old rape survivor was sent by her aunty to buy fire wood on the road. And while there, defendant Johnson grabbed her by her hand and took her into his room, thereafter covered her mouth with a cloth and sexually abused her.
The survivor was taken to the Martha Tubman Memorial hospital in Zwedru City, which is over 450 kilometers from Monrovia. The test showed that the child was indeed penetrated.
Defendant Johnson Statutory rape in line with Chapter 14 section 14.70 of the revised penal code of the republic of Liberia.
Meanwhile, cases have hit the roof of the docket due to weak Justice System to prosecute those cases. Report by Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com