The chief of Sefwi Aboduam in the Western Region, Nana Kwao Awuah II, has vowed that all girls who get pregnant below the age of 18 in the farming community would be banished.
The chief maintained that the move was part of efforts to deter teenage girls in the area from engaging in sexual promiscuity and to curtail the high rate of teenage pregnancy.
According to Nana Kwao Awuah II, it is pathetic to note that most of the young girls in the Aboduam community are not able to pursue their education even to the secondary levels as most of them get pregnant while in primary schools.
“Girl child education rate in the community is very poor but teenage pregnancy is on the ascendancy. So as part of measures to halt the rampant teenage pregnancies, I held a meeting with my elders and we concluded that young ladies, who get pregnant below the age of 18, will be banished from the community,” he stressed.
Speaking to Daily Guide, Nana Awuah II pointed out that the official announcement of the decision taken on the incessant teenage pregnancies in the area would be done on Saturday during the out-dooring of a new queen mother for the area.
“Can you imagine I visited a house recently and I saw a young girl who will be in either class five or six, pregnant? Surprisingly, I was told by the residents that the young girl was not the only one and mentioned other equally young girls who are also pregnant,” the chief disclosed.
Nana Kwao Awuah II attributed the problem partly to the fact that most parents in the community had shirked their responsibility of taking good care of their children, especially the girls, and had allowed them to roam around even at odd times.
He pointed out that the era when people believed that parents could not monitor the movements of their children and so it was God who would take care of them (children), is over.
The chief emphasised that parents should take proper care of their female children by encouraging them to pursue education and get married only when they are of age.
He therefore, warned that any parents who refused to advise their children against engaging in sexual intercourse and they (children) get pregnant before age 18, would also be banished as well as the men who impregnate such young girls.
Nana Awuah II, who was installed chief of Sefwi Aboduam on July 1, 2014, told Daily Guide that upon assumption to the throne, he realized that invocation of curses was also on the ascendancy.
“So I decreed that anyone caught invoking curses would be fined GH¢500.00 and a sheep. And by the grace of God the act has gone down,” he indicated.
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