Ghanaian born International athlete, Christian Atsu has liberated a mother and her two daughters of serving a 3-month jail term for amassing rejected harvested corn from a farm without permission.
The Court found Joyce and her two daughters including a lactating mother liable to the crime and pronounced a verdict of guilt meriting a jail term after they lacked the ability to raise a fine of Ghs360.00.
In a post on facebook, Ace Journalist Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng stated that Black Stars and Newcastle winger, Christian Atsu donated a cash of One Thousand Ghana Cedis, Ghs1000.00 to enable them to go home to proceed with their hustle.
Meanwhile, Ibrahim Oppong noted that cases like this are appalling and needs a strong review of Ghana’s Criminal Justice laws.
According to him, In a country where poverty is endemic in most rural communities, inhabitants toil all day in quest of feeding their families.
“Cases like this make a strong case for a review of Ghana’s criminal justice laws. They may not have had permission for collecting the leftovers from the farm, but in a country where poverty is endemic in most rural communities, what some rural folks do is to go searching for rejected harvested corn to keep their families alive.”
Oppong stated that the court sees no problem with government officials who loot state funds and exploit technicalities.
“some big men chop state funds and use technicalities to go Scot free in court. What a country we live in!”
Ibrahim Oppong stressed that a law could have prescribed a community sentence relating to cases of these sorts rather than apprehending criminals in jail.
“Such a law could have prescribed community sentence at least for these women instead of pushing them and the innocent baby into prison.”
Source: Gerrad Israel
