There are growing concerns over the increasing spate of sextortion, where sex is used as a means of payment for services by some disadvantaged ladies who are exploited by some men, as they take advantage of them.
Narrating some of these forms of sextortion at a day’s training workshop on corruption and Gender Dimensions of corruption organised by Transparency International Ghana in Takoradi, the Executive Director of Rural Development Network (RUDNET- Ghana), Oliver Cromwell, revealed that along the beaches of the Western region, the issue of young girls offering themselves for fish is a common occurrence.
“Sex for fishers been there for a while now; when you go to our beaches from Sekondi to Axim to Esiama, we have these young girls who eke out a living on their own and as such engage in all manner of acts for survival, ranging from offering themselves for sex in return for fish which they sell to earn money,” he revealed.
He revealed that other ladies who are familiar with the fisherfolk readily offer sex to get fish in return to feed their families, he continued.
“We have other young girls who also offer sex to get capital to trade and money for their hair and upkeep. There are ranges, the low class, middle class …even beyond this, there are ghettos dotted along our beaches where girls operate brothels and offer sex for GH₵20, GH₵30 for a session. There is therefore a need for the metropolitan municipal district assemblies to step up the needed awareness for the youths on the dangers therein. We need to go to the ghettos, especially those for the young girls, where some homeowners have offered abodes for them to indulge in such indecency, with the landlords charging GH₵30 a day. This goads the girls on, and the assemblies must strategise at providing some vocation for these young girls,” he passionately appealed.
Tracing the trends of sextortion, the Head of Finance of Transparency International Ghana, Benedict Doh, revealed that a recent study by Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice and Ghana Statistical Service in 2022 revealed that a sizeable percentage of respondents of a recent survey buttressed the incidence of sex before service is rendered; “…the survey revealed the 3.39% percent of the respondents who were women indicated that sex was demanded of them when they needed service from public officials as a form of a bribe before you can access the said service.
This is quite critical since women form a greater chunk of Ghana’s population. If even they (women) constitute 60% and you juxtapose it against the 3.39% of the survey, it is an issue of huge concern, so we need to direct all energies into an advocacy in preventing women from being unduly taken advantage of,” stressed Benedict Doh.
By Kwame Malcolm, Empire FM-Takoradi
