Some parents abandoned their children who were arrested at night by the ‘Child Curfew Taskforce’ of the Obuasi East District Assembly in the Ashanti Region, 3news.com has gathered.
This is because, according to the parents, the children were recalcitrant so they prefer them being kept by the police to being with them in their homes.
The Obuasi East District Chief Executive, Faustina Amissah, made the revelation in an interview on Onua FM’s Yen Sempa on Wednesday while commenting on what protective measures have been put in place by the Assembly to curb teenage pregnancy in the wake of the reopening of Anglogold AshantiGold.
President Nana Akufo-Addo on Tuesday reopened the Obuasi mine, which has been shut down since 2014.
Madam Amissah said in order to curb teenage pregnancy and also encourage children to learn, the Assembly passed a by-law and introduced what it called ‘Child Curfew’.
Under the Child Curfew, the Assembly’s taskforce was dispatched to the Obuasi township and its enclave after 8pm to arrest those under-18s who were seen after the hour and sent to police station.
She said the by-laws mandate parents to come for their children the next day but “when we arrest them, they claim they don’t hail from Obuasi”.
The DCE said when the police called some parents to come for their children, the parents told the police to keep the children in custody because they are disobedient.
“Some of the parents also said they were fed up with their children,” she explained.
Madam Amissah added: “We don’t have rehabilitation centre too and some children cannot trace their homes”.
Employment
Commenting on the employment creation of the reopening of the mine, Madam Amissah said “the unskilled labour has been preserved for only those living in Obuasi enclave”.
She said the skilled ones are open to all Ghanaians but if there is a vacancy for one position and an Obuasi citizen applies, the one living in Obuasi will have the advantage.
The DCE said “the direct and indirect employment will be about 2,500”.
Health
On health, Madam Amissah noted that “we can’t drink any river or stream from Obuasi. All have been polluted so residents do not drink water from the rivers or streams”.
Due to this, she insisted, “mechanized boreholes are being dug. We have dug several of them for the people”.
By Kweku Antwi-Otoo|3news.com|Ghana