After several years of playing hide-and-seek with the security agencies after sexually molesting over 30 girls in the Wa Municipality, a 35-year-old paedophile has finally been busted.
Rashid Anaata, a popular beautician and wedding decorator who was arrested from his hideout, is currently facing prosecution for defiling more than thirty girls in the municipality.
The girls, mostly aged between 10 and 13, had similar stories about how the man lured them into his room and forcibly had carnal knowledge of them.
In May this year when three of the defiled girls exposed the alleged paedophile in a viral social media video, he went into hiding. Police searches failed to find him. But luck eluded him when the police, acting on intelligence, apprehended him in his hideout in the Upper West Region last week.
He has since been put before court and charged with defiling 12 children, who have been medically examined and have come forward to give evidence. The rest of the 30 girls have not joined the prosecution yet, according to the Regional State Attorney handling the matter.
Rashid Anaata was first reported to the police for defiling a schoolgirl in 2016. However, the case was later withdrawn when pressure was brought to bear on the victim’s mother.
But in May 2023 the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bahass Foundation, Mr Eliasu Baba Yussif reported him to the police again over the defilement of three girls. The police acted swiftly but Mr Rashid Anaaba had already absconded.
Making an appearance in Court on Monday August 7, 2023, the Upper West Regional State Attorney, Saeed Abdul Shakur pleaded with the trial judge to remand the suspect considering the gravity of the case. He argued that it would be in the interest of the suspect to be remanded for his own safety as angry residents could lynch him.
The suspect was subsequently remanded in police custody and the case adjourned to Monday August 14, 2023.
Meanwhile, angry residents of Wa besieged the court premises to catch a glimpse of the suspect who reports suggest had fled to Burkina Faso and was lurking around border town before his arrest.
