The Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Development Company, Felicity Nelson has called on the security agencies to act in enforcing the law by preventing elders, church leaders, imams, chiefs, queen mothers and politicians from intervening in criminal cases for it to be settled out of court.
She said the police should insist on enforcing the law and if necessary, they should drag such intermediaries along and charge them accordingly for interfering in criminal cases.
“This idea that when someone commits a crime, especially of a sexual nature, where elders, church leaders, imams, chiefs, queen mothers, politicians go in and beg on their behalf … it needs to stop. If it was even my wish, we’ll criminalise it,” she said.
Ms Nelson said reports of sexual abuse involving children should be referred to the police immediately.
“The minute someone reports something to you, especially as an adult, that a child has reported to you that they have faced some kind of sexual abuse, it should instantly trigger the police,” she said. “I don’t understand why there seem to be so many different layers.”
Nelson was speaking on Joy FM's Newsfile programme on Saturday (October 24, 2026), following reports of interventions by traditional authorities and public officials in the Obuasi Senior High Technical School sexual abuse allegations involving some female students and the headmaster.
She cited the duty to prevent a felony and the offence of compounding a crime as existing legal provisions relevant to the issue.
Per what the police was investigating in relation to the Obuasi allegations, some municipal officials and traditional authorities were said to have intervened at some point in an attempt to settled the issue out of court and out of the police station.
Ms Nelson also spoke about the welfare of the alleged victims, including their psychological and emotional needs.
“We need to prioritise the victims in this case … their wants, their needs. We need to ensure that they are fine. We need to ensure that psychologically they’re okay, emotionally … and that they are encouraged and they are given confidence to be ready to stand up,” she said.
