High priest Mr Tsuru is one of the most powerful people in the community where he married a 12-year-old girl in Ghana (Picture: Facebook)
A 12-year-old girl is ‘under police protection’ after marrying a 63-year-old priest.
People were outraged and demanded the priest’s arrest when videos emerged of women telling the child to dress ‘teasingly’ and wear gifted perfume to be more sexually attractive to the priest.
She was married to Nuumo Borketey Laweh Tsuru XXXIII in a ‘customary’ ceremony in Ghana last week.
The girl, who was selected by the priest when she was just six years old, was expected to take part in a second ceremony to ‘purify’ her and prepare her for childrearing.
One community leader, Nii Bortey Kofi Frankwa II, said she ‘will have to wait until she is mature or she reaches the legal age of marriage and childbirth’ before the priest will have sexual relations with the child.
Mr Tsuru is one of the most powerful figures in her Nungua community in the capital, Accra, where he is a ‘Gborbu Wulomo’, or traditional high priest.
The ceremony was deemed necessary ‘to ensure no man sexually stains her’, Star FM reported.
The priest performs sacrifices, prays for the community’s protection, and enforces cultural practices (Picture: Facebook)
But Kofi Asare, the Executive Director of the African Education Watch, said this doesn’t change the fact that it ‘is illegal to marry a 12-year-old girl’.
He said: ‘The excuse that she won’t be performing conjugal duties is immaterial to the law.
‘The cops must grab the Nungua Wulomo and cohorts now.’
Now police have acted, offering the girl and her mother protection, after a wave of fury following the marriage, local media reported.
A spokesperson said: ‘The Ghana Police Service is working with the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection and the Department of Social Welfare to provide her with the necessary support while the matter is being investigated.’
Community leaders reacted furiously to this news.
A spokesperson for the priest said: ‘The police said the young lady who is our queen is under their protection, therefore if the police have remarked that she is under police protection, where again do we want to find her?
‘We are telling the world that she is our royal.’
‘Customary’ marriages are legal in Ghana, as long as they’re not using ‘tradition’ and ‘culture’ as a cover for illegal child marriages (Picture: Ablade TV)
Mr Frankwa explained the spiritual significance of the priest’s marriage to the girl.
He claimed she ‘is a reincarnated woman who lived over 300 years ago and has returned to ensure that the sacred rituals of one of the deities which have not been performed for years can be done’.
It is illegal to marry people under the age of 18 in Ghana, but more than two million child brides are married there every year.
Some 5% of girls there are married before their 15th birthday, according to the Girls Not Brides NGO.
Roughly 19% of girls are married before they’re 18.
Community leaders used the Biblical story of Mary and Joseph to defend the ‘customary’ marriage against criticism they said ‘comes from a place of ignorance’.
Although ‘customary’ marriages are recognised by Ghanaian law, child marriages masquerading as ‘culture’ or ‘tradition’ are illegal.
Under a Facebook video of the wedding, one concerned Ghanaian wrote: ‘Customary wife???
‘Child marriage is criminalised in Ghana and no rite that violates a girl’s rights to achieve her full potential should be celebrated’.
Another said: ‘There are so many things wrong with this country, and this is one of them!?? How is a 12-year-old becoming a wife in 2024?! Is this some silly joke???’
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