Three students involved in an ongoing investigation into alleged sexual misconduct at Obuasi Senior High Technical School have withdrawn from state interventions following media reports exposing their identities, Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection Dr Agnes Naa Momo Lartey has revealed.
Addressing the media after a stakeholder engagement session at the school, the Minister expressed deep frustration over uncircumspect media reporting, warning that naming victims or broadcasting recognisable voices has compromised child protection protocols and severely hindered justice delivery.
”One of the challenges we have had engaging the victims is that the media has not helped the case,” Dr Lartey stated, adding, “Two or three of the students have had to withdraw because their full names were mentioned on a media station, and because of that, their parents are reluctant to engage further.”
She cautioned journalists that even when facial identities were masked, identifiable voices enabled peers and families to trace the victims, exposing them to stigmatisation and undermining the joint efforts of state agencies and civil society.
”These are the lived realities and experiences of people,” she stressed, highlighting, “In as much as we want the news, let us exercise restraint. It is not just one system failing; it is all of us who depend on that system to seek justice. We will all be affected one way or the other.”
The engagement forms part of an ongoing state-led investigation into the suspended headmaster of the school, Zakaria Abdulai, following widespread allegations of abuse.
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