As a woman, a mother and a sister, I write with a heavy heart about Madam Salomey Baffoe, the 40-year-old nurse and mother of three who was taken from her home in Hansua, Techiman, close to midnight on Sunday, 13th September.
For two days her family searched for her while the police and regional National Security officials said they knew nothing about her.
We now know the state was holding her all along. She was brought before the Adenta Circuit Court on Wednesday and remanded, long after the 48 hours our Constitution allows. Her lawyer says the prosecution accuses her of conspiring with the anonymous “Ghana Jollof” to overthrow the government, yet the charge sheet had not even been served on her defence before the hearing.
Think about what this means for her. A woman who spends her days caring for the sick at Abrafi Hospital was taken from her home at night and kept away from everyone who loves her. Her three children were left behind in Techiman, waiting for a mother who did not come home. No child in Ghana should go to bed wondering where their mother is.
I am not asking that anyone be placed above the law. If the state has evidence, let it bring that evidence openly and fairly. But suspicion is not evidence, and a mother’s freedom must not be gambled away in the hunt for an anonymous account. Earlier this month it was Efya Royal. Today it is Salomey. Ghanaian women deserve to know which of us will be next.
I therefore appeal to His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama, as father of this nation, to direct the Minister for National Security, the National Security Coordinator, the Director-General of the National Investigations Bureau and the Inspector-General of Police to:
- Let Salomey be granted bail, so she can go home to her children while investigations continue.
- Explain to Ghanaians why she was held beyond the 48 hours the Constitution permits.
- Give her family and lawyers full and regular access to her.
- End night-time arrests of women and the circulation of their photographs on mere suspicion.
I thank the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association for standing by their member. To Salomey’s husband, her mother and her children, please know that the women of this country are with you. We will keep raising our voices until she is back home where she belongs.
