Attack on female referee: The gross impunity must stop
The widespread of impunity when it comes to abuse of women in all spheres in Ghana is disturbing. On daily basis, women and girls are attacked both physically and emotionally with not many of the perpetrators brought to book.
Despite the existence of state institutions and agencies like the social welfare, DOVVSU (police), the courts and so on, not many offenders are duly punished in a timely manner and victims given justice.
Due to the inconsistencies in the penal system, some individuals appear to feel enamoured in their violent behaviour towards women. Even some in authority, abuse their power, and exert their physical strength indiscriminately on women without without thinking about it.
The recent incident, a very ugly one in which a FIFA female referee was assaulted by a fan of one of the teams in a game she was officiating in broad daylight over the weekend in Sunyani is despicable, to say the least.
Theresa Bremansu was allegedly assaulted by a prison officer after the Prisons ladies’s team lost 1-0 to Ampem Darkoa in the first leg of the semi-finals of the women’s special competition.
If it is true that an officer of the Prison Service indeed, physically attacked the female referee, then his action should be deemed to have brought shame and disrepute to the Service, and must therefore, exact some consequences according the Service’s own rules of behaviour for its officers.
In Theresa’s own words, she said she was attacked by a Prison Ladies supporter who was wearing a black top in the full glare of the public. “I cried for help, nobody came to my rescue, I called for his arrest and nobody moved a finger. They all stood and watched this man beat me up”, she said in interviews on some radio stations.
She told Ultimate Sports that “after beating me, their masseur had the guts to tell me she wished I was beaten to death. I was beaten like an armed robber.”
This is unacceptable in any civilised society and must be condemned by all right thinking people and the right legal action should be taken to bring the said officer to book.
We at ghanabusinessnews.com, call on all well meaning Ghanaians to demand that the matter is properly taken over by the right state institution, and proper and full investigation should be conducted and if found foul of the law, the said prisons officer should face the appropriate sanctions to serve as a deterrent to others who may want to take the law in their own hands and physically abuse others that they simply disagree with.
We also call on the football community to avoid using violence at any point during any game to resolve issues of misunderstanding. We urge them to use the laid down procedures for addressing misunderstandings in games, because violence do not solve problems or misunderstandings in sports, it only exacerbates bad situations and it is not a good reflection of Ghanaian society where, very increasingly, a greater section of Ghanaians are beginning to uphold the rights and respect for women in all sections of public life.
A ghanabusinessnews.com editorial