The Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service has called for improvement in the handling of Domestic Violence cases which often ended with the imprisonment of perpetrators.
Assistant Superintendent of Police and Tema Regional Co-ordinator of DOVVSU, Rebecca Nyamah said the victims were left to cater for their medical expenses after the perpetrators were imprisoned.

Assistant Superintendent of Police and Tema Regional Co-ordinator of DOVVSU, Rebecca Nyamah said the victims were left to cater for their medical expenses after the perpetrators were imprisoned.

ASP Nyamah said most of the victims, whose livelihood depended on the perpetrators who were mostly relatives and employees, preferred enduring the violence to losing their sources of survival. She, therefore, suggested that the government should put in place measures that would support the victims after the accused persons had been jailed, in order to encourage the public to report such crimes. She said some victims could not afford funds for transport to the hospital, payment for medical check ups and getting professional counseling to overcome their trauma.

ASP Nyamah said several adjournments of cases could be attributed to victims losing interest in attending court proceedings because apart from not having money for transportation victims saw it as a waste of time knowing that they would not be awarded any compensation by the courts.

She appealed to the government to provide nationwide office for DOVVSU with logistics, especially vehicles, as personnel often depend on their personal resources as well as that of the victims and for transportation to the scene of the crime and arrest of perpetrators.

Source: GNA