21 year old former Black Queens player sues IGP

A 21-year-old lady who is a former player of the Black Queens, Holali Ativor has instituted a human rights action at the High Court in Ho against the Inspector General of Police for her unlawful arrest and detention at Area 51 Police Cell in Ho.

According to the suit and accompanying affidavit, the lady, who identifies herself as an intersex person and a professional footballer, says she was invited in May 2021 to attend a three-day paralegal training in Ho meant for women exposed to sexual or gender-based violence, abuse, harassment or discrimination.

She avers that the training went on smoothly except for the last day; Thursday, May 20, 2021, where just about the end of the morning session, some persons who were later identified as Police officers and without a warrant, entered the conference room and started assaulting, restraining, beating and verbally abusing the participants while others looked on, taking pictures and videos.

Following this, the applicant states that they were forced into vans and trucks and drove through the streets of Ho, and finally distributed to various police station cells where she was sent to the Area 51 Police Station.

Further to the above, she says that at her police cells, they were paraded in a small hall where the police officials held paper cards to their faces with various inscriptions and invited passers-by to come to watch, harass, and verbally abuse them.

Additionally, the applicant notes that at the police station, she was physically examined to ascertain her real gender after which she was kept in a male Cell on the orders of a police officer who also told the male occupants in the cell to rape her of which they made attempts.

After being kept in the Cell, she continues that she and the other participants were arraigned before the Ho Circuit Court where they were charged with ‘unlawful assembly.'

The applicant is of the view that her arrest, detention, the abusive treatment, and the extreme harassment that the police subjected her to were exclusively and solely on the belief that her being a sexual minority-an intersex person is criminal. 

She is thus seeking from the High Court inter alia the following declaratory reliefs, order and cost;

i.That my arrest, the searches on both my personal and into my personal belongings, my detention and arraignment by the respondents, their officials, or agents were substantially on grounds that I am an intersex or a sexual minority.

ii. That the treatment which the 1st Respondent, his agents, and officials meted out to me during my detention were substantially on grounds that I am an intersex or a sexual minority.

iii. That by arresting me under the circumstance without a court warrant, the respondents, their officials, or agents have violated my fundamental human rights to personal liberty, etc

iv. That by conducting various searches on me and into my personal belongings under the circumstances without a court warrant, the respondent, their officials, or agents have violated my fundamental human rights to privacy, etc

v.That by depositing me, a woman in a men's police cells, the respondents, their officials, or agents have violated my fundamental human rights to human dignity, etc

vi. That by directing the male cell inmates to rape me, the respondents, their officials, or agents have violated my fundamental human rights to human dignity, etc

b.An order directing the State or the Respondents, their officials or agents to pay prompt, adequate, and effective compensation to me, having in mind the embarrassment, pain, agony, loss of time, etc.

C. cost etc