Actress Rosemond Brown, chiefly known as Akuapem Poloo, in 2021 was arrested and prosecuted for taking a nude photo with her seven-year-old son and publishing it on her social media pages.
The single mother, in several interviews, explained that she never knew that the state's laws were against the publication of obscene materials.
A section of the public, including
Read full articlefamous Ghanaian lawyer Maurice Ampaw, believes that some people purposely went after Akuapem Poloo because many women have committed worse offences than the actress, however, they were never made to face the law.
Speaking in an interview with GhanaWeb's Paula Amma Broni on the back of two young women who have gone viral for attending a party in Accra in half-naked dresses, the lawyer explained why they need to be arrested for indecent public exposure.
"In Ghana, we do selective justice. We decide to pick who we want to go after. The hypocrisy of the system is that when they don't like you, they go after you...Child Rights took the matter up. Now when it comes o issues of this nature, women groups and women advocates are not interested," he told GhanaWeb.
Expressing worry over the high rate of indecency in the country, Lawyer Ampaw argued that the appropriate agencies are not enforcing the laws to deal with culprits.
"It is exposing women to public ridicule and women's human rights. Women in Parliament should take this matter up so that we can deal with some of these impunities in the system...other countries are serious when it comes to executing their laws, but in Ghana, we are not serious...our leaders are not interested in enforcing the laws of the land."
He furthered: "We need a crusade, we need to be serious, like the way we've taken the issue of gay in this country. I think that we need to put pressure on the authorities to start acting; they shouldn't wait for people to make complaints. They have the responsibility to prevent crime... I am therefore calling on the security agencies; I am calling on the head of the cybercrime unit to be interested because it is on social media. They should quickly get these girls arrested and prosecuted.
"We are more concerned about bread and butter issues...we need to put pressure on security agencies like the way they go after armed robbers and rapists; I think that they should do the same when it comes to those who are abusing our sexual rights. It is an abuse of sexual rights for anybody to wake up in the morning and see a woman's private parts...when some boys and girls see these pictures, it encourages them to engage in social vices. We need to put pressure on the security agencies, and I am prepared to do that."
Actress Akuapem Poloo
