Househelp released from prison through USAID Justice Sector Support Activity

34-year-old house help, Esther Katibu who was jailed for stealing her boss’s mobile phones and his laptop has been granted bail.

This follows a Crime Check Foundation’s (CCF) report on her case under the USAID Justice Sector Support Activity (JSSA).

As an implementing partner of the JSSA, CCF followed up on her story and got the Commonwealth on Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) to get her a lawyer after Esther’s boyfriend, James Wasawu run to CCF for legal support when she was arrested.

In an interview, he said his girlfriend’s boss, the Chief Executive Officer of Taabea Group of Companies, Dr. Christian Akwasi Agyeman caused her arrest for allegedly stealing three mobile phones and a laptop belonging to him. James indicated that Esther is innocent of the charges levelled against her.

He said she was detained in police cells for three weeks before being sent to a Circuit Court in Kumasi. The court, he said granted her bail to the sum of Forty Thousand Ghana cedis (GHS 40,000) pending her trial, which she couldn’t afford. The court subsequently remanded her.

“Esther informed me that her boss returned from work one dawn and found out that his three mobile phones and a laptop computer had been stolen from his locker. Mr Agyeman accused Esther of the theft because, according to him, his CCTV video captured Esther around the scene where the items were kept, though he did not see her taking them.” James said.

The USAID JSSA

The bail was granted Esther through the intervention of CCF and CHRI, underscores efforts by the USAID Justice Sector Support Activity to enhance Ghana’s justice delivery system by increasing Citizens’ Oversight and Monitoring of Criminal Cases, increasing citizen knowledge and access to Justice Sector services, and strengthening advocacy for accountability of key justice sector institutions for improved justice delivery in Ghana.