By Bawanke David
MP for Krachi West Constituency and ranking member for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Hon. Helen Adwoa Ntoso, has reacted to the operational system by International Justice Mission which has been exposed by the BBC Africa Eye.
The MP said there was a publication that was made by CNN in 2019 that 20,000 children were found on the Volta lake as child trafficking and child labor which she thought the National Security and the Ministry of Interior should have taken up the matter.
According to the MP, that tarnished the image of the country.
“I was thinking the National security and the interior Ministry will take interest in it because this is tarnishing the image of Ghana”.
“They can not say there are 20,000 children in Ghana who were trafficked”.
The Ranking member sees that as a force publication.
On 6th September 2022, in Northern Ghana, four children were taken at gunpoint from home in the middle of the night.
They were brought to a hotel, photographed, washed and fed.
At sunrise, they were relocated to a shelter. Their families were left in the dark as to where and why.
The BBC Africa Eye did a documentary on this and found out that these children were not use for child trafficking and child labor as the International Justice Mission claimed.
With this, the Hon. Member has called on the National Security and the Interior Ministry to go back to the 2019 publication and link it to the current one.
“As a ranking member, The International Justice Mission (IJM) is working in this country rescuing children for child labor and child trafficking on the lake especially in Afram Place, Krachi West, Krachi East and Krachi Nchumuru and other areas”.
“What they are doing is, they are interested in just arresting parents and prosecuting them but never think of what the family goes through”.
The Former Volta Regional Minister said as a mother,she always advises parents to be interested in sending their children to school.
“Some of these parents train their children how to fish, we are advocating for the children to be sent to school, and when they are on break, you can teach them how to fish”.
The Krachi West MP is worried about the operations system of the International Justice Mission (IJM).
To her, IJM should not only be interested in arresting and persecuting but also have an interest in building schools.
The Ranking Member on Gender, Children and Social Protection said if the International Justice Mission, IJM has an interest in putting up schools, the children will have an interest in going to school.
She said if government is not putting up schools, the IJM should do that.
She added that the island communities don’t have Schools and other social amenities and she is struggling as a member of parliament for the Area to put up some pavilions with her little common fun.
The IJM is not interested in putting up schools and she has not seen and heard them putting up schools since they have started operating in the Krachi West.
According to her, the children that the Mission is rescuing, which Schools do they want them to go as they themselves is not putting up one.
The MP has therefore called on Justice for All to have interest in this and help free parents who have been jailed wrongly.
Hon. Helen Adwoa Ntoso said some of these children rescued are with their parents and those parents are jailed wrongly and called on Justice for All to come to the aid of their parents.
Some she said, are in the Krachi prison and Ho prison.
She gave an example of a pathetic story of one Mr. Otsi Richard and Etsey Richard, 79 years and 56 years respectively, who have been jailed wrongly and are currently in the Ho prisons.
She has promised to take the matter to the floor of parliament when the house resumes.