Suspects in Kasoa murder need support for reform
The Executive Director of The Ark Foundation, Dr Angela Dwamena-Aboagye, has said it is important for the two teenage boys who are suspected of murdering a 10-year boy old at Kasoa to be given the necessary support towards reform and rehabilitation.
She said society must not give up on the boys because there was hope that if somebody received the help he or she needed, it could lead to change.
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She, therefore, appealed to the people who work in the correctional system for juveniles to pay attention to the boys and work well with them for reformation.
Ishmael Mensah Abdallah was killed on Holy Saturday, April 3, 2021, by Nicholas Kini, 18, and Felix Nyarko, 16, at Coca Cola near Lamptey Mills, a suburb of Kasoa in the Central Region.
Remanded
Ishmael has since been laid to rest while the suspected murderers have been remanded in police custody to reappear in court on April 20, 2021.
A fetish priestess, yet to be officially named by the police, has also been arrested at Amanase, near Suhum, to assist in investigations.
Dr Dwamena-Aboagye said the boys needed mentors within the correctional system and so they should be assigned “a carefully chosen mentor who is multi-skilled and one who can bring a number of skills to play in engaging them through counseling, coaching, skills building, confidence building, among others.”
She said the mentor should be someone who would be able to call in expert help (from a psychologist or pastoral counselor) when the need arose.
She also appealed to the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to organise some social and psychological support for the family of the victim to help them cope with their loss.
She said many parents were doing their best for their children while there were others who were not trying and there was the need to take a look at strengthening the family unit (which is a constitutional mandate) and pay more attention to the relationship dynamics within the family unit.
On regulation of content on what children watch, she said the National Media Commission (NMC) together with the National Communications Authority (NCA) had to engage all stakeholders to think through what could be done in the best interest and welfare of children so that even when challenged in court, they would have something to stand on.
Work more closely
She said the NCA had to work more closely with internet service providers to block access to websites that were not child-friendly, adding that there were countries that had succeeded in not having certain content come onto their system.
She said although the country could not rid itself of every negative issue, there was the need to work “assiduously in every way we can to stem the hype of this kind of violent behaviour or crime.”
In a related development, parents have been advised to bring up their children well.
A mother of three, Mrs Ginny Tetteh Tawiah, advised parents to inculcate the fear of God in their children and also teach them what is right and wrong; this way, as they grow up they will stay away from wrongful acts.
She further said parents should know where their children were at every point in time, know who they played with as well as their friends. That way, she added, they could check up on them to see if something was wrong.
She explained that by getting to know the friends of their children, they would be able to decide whether they were of good or bad character.
For his part, Mr Kofi Baah, a parent, said parents should frequently have conversations with their children and during such occasions, ask them of their needs.
That way, he explained, they would know what they wanted and provide it for them.
Interactions
He added that if parents of the teenagers who committed the act had had those interactions with their children, they would have known about their interest.
He said after getting to know of their needs, the parents could then get it for them if they could afford it or explain to the children why they could not get them what they wanted.
He added that parents should not hesitate to give the children what they needed as that would make them have confidence in their parents.