DOVVSU to ensure peace in marriages not divorce – Official
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Elizabeth Dassah, National Co-ordinator of Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, says the unit was established to ensure marital harmony and not divorce.
“Ghanaians especially women should not think that reporting domestic violence and abuses in their homes to DOVVSU would lead to divorce, rather it would ensure peace,” she added.
ACP Dassah was addressing a sensitisation programme organised for traders at Kaneshie Market in Accra.
She called for mutual respect among couples and an end to domestic violence especially in the presence of their children.
ACP Dassah urged women to take good care of their children and treat their stepchildren and house helps with respect to avoid prosecution on acts against them.
She advised parents to desist from allowing children under 13 years to trade especially on the streets and even during the night because it was not lawful.
ACP Dassah bemoaned the rate at which men were defiling and raping their step daughters, house helps and sometimes their own children and expressed the need for people not to hesitate to report such crimes to DOVVSU.
She urged victims of domestic violence to identify witnesses before reporting to the Police to facilitate investigations on rape or defilements.
ACP Dassah said rape victims should not take their bath before reporting to the Police in order to preserve enough evidence in prosecution.
She appealed to women assaulted by their husbands to report to the Police even when they had received apologies in other to facilitate counselling.
“It is not normal for a woman to feel being loved only after she has been beaten and apologised to later by the man. Such women should contact DOVVSU because they also need counselling,” she said.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Phyllis Osei, Clinical Psychologist with DOVVSU called on women who abuse their husbands to desist from such acts since there had been reports of such cases.
She pointed out that domestic violence could lead to mental problems when not well managed and called on all and sundry to help curb it.
Source: GNA