The family of a young woman who has travelled out of the country for studies are living in constant fear of terror and harassment from a man who she was betrothed to at a very young age.
It has become a regular sight for residents of Sowutuom in Ablekuma, Accra to see one Alhaji Musah Angulu storm the home of parents of one Latifa Fiagbedu to terrorise them incessantly demanding the whereabouts of the now 23 year old woman whose bride price he paid long ago and had taken care of like his wife since her infancy.
According to some residents of the area who are regular witnesses to the mayhem meted out by the elderly man and a few hudlooms he parades with, the parents of Ms. Fiagbedu agreed to bethroth her to Alhaji Angulu when she was barely two years old due to financial difficulties. Accordingly, Alhaji Angulu who already has three wives and intends to marry Ms. Fiagbedu as the fourth wife took care of every responsibility for the young woman through school and other utilities until she graduated from university last year.
She then got an opportunity to go on an exchange program in Poland and went without the knowledge of her benefactor, Alhaji Angulu. After asking of her whereabouts for sometime without receiving any concrete responses, Alhaji became angry and violent and has made it a habit to harass her parents, demanding, insisting they produce their daughter.
Miss Fiagbedu, a close family source revealed, only got to know that her parents had betrothed her to the Alhaji after word got to her about his constant harassment of her parents and why. Even though she knew Alhaji Angulu very well and how he took care of her every need since she was a small child, she always saw her as a father figure and not a man she could marry.
Now taken aback by Alhaji’s threats that he will catch her and marry her byforce whenever he sees her, Miss Fiagbedu is in a dilemma whether to return to Ghana when she’s through with her exchange program in Poland because she definitely doesn’t want to marry the old man, said the family source.
“Her parents accept responsibility for giving their child out when she was not old enough to know, now they are very afraid for their daughter because they know she wants to return to Ghana and work after her exchange program,” the soure said.
“They don’t know if they can involve the police because they know Alhaji also has a case since he spent a lot of money on their daughter over the years. Now all they are praying for is to find an amicable solution to the problem,” it added.
