Teenage Pregnancy Surge: “Men should zip up, Girls should close their Legs” – Otiko Djaba

Former Gender Minister, Otiko Afisa Djaba, has slammed men who impregnate teenage girls, asking them to zip up.

Speaking on the AM Show Tuesday, the Founder and Executive Director of Henry Djaba Memorial Foundation asked parents to pay critical attention to the girl child while working towards ending the cycle of poverty in their families, another reason young girls sleep around because they have to make ends meet.

“It is the girl child who’s the victim. We should protect her at all cost. We shouldn’t throw her out of the house.”

She added, “those unscrupulous men, I will not say anyone should castrate them. But they should zip their pants. We must ensure that they enforce the laws.”

Her comments come after reports from the Ghana Health Service show that more than a hundred thousand teenagers got pregnant in 2020, a situation stakeholders describe as alarming.

In an interaction with Benjamin Akakpo, she also advised young girls to close their legs irrespective of what they’d go through, adding that getting pregnant at a tender age could alter their dreams.

Also on the show were a former Technical Director of the Gender Ministry, Dinah Adiko and Alhaji Awal Ahmed Kariama, Executive Director of RISE-Ghana, an NGO in the Northern part of Ghana which fights for the rights of vulnerable women in society.

These two also called for criminal prosecution of men found to have impregnated girls under 16 years, opining that having sexual relationships with girls under 16 is criminal and against the laws of Ghana, as such those men should be made to face the full rigours of the law.

By Derrick Ekow Sam