The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Dr Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, has called on the public to desist from sharing non-consensual intimate videos of Ghanaian ladies secretly recorded and leaked by a Russian.
“I will urge us to stop sharing the pictures and the videos. It is not good; you might think that it is fun sharing it, but from where I sit, people can lose their lives because of that. Their entire future can be wiped away because of that.
“I will plead with us. People fall, but the good thing is that they gather the courage to rise again. Let’s give these people the opportunity to rise,” the minister said.
Dr Momo Lartey was speaking in an interview on the sidelines of the 39th AU Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, last Saturday.
Collaboration, naivety
Dr Momo Lartey said the ministry was collaborating with the Ministry of Communication, which was constituting a technical team and relevant security agencies to cause the videos to be pulled down, and perpetrators sharing the videos brought to book.
She said the ministry was also taking steps to provide psychological support for the victims of the unfortunate incident, while urging Ghanaians to learn to be one another’s keeper and to protect the image of the victims.
The minister lamented the naivety and trusting nature of Ghanaians, saying it had made the youth vulnerable to exploitation.
Dr Momo Lartey further indicated that Ghanaians’ openness and hospitality, once a virtue, now posed a risk in a world that had become increasingly dangerous.
“Ghanaians are so trusting sometimes; some of the girls were just naive. We are so trusting because that is how we were brought up. We used to say we are hospitable.
“I don’t know if we can still say that. When you see within the community, someone will give their daughter or son out to lead a stranger to a neighbour’s house, and that is how we are.
“We are so open and so trusting that you can see a stranger and walk to the stranger’s home without knowing who the stranger is,” she said.
Advice
Dr Momo Lartey advised the public to be very conscious and deliberate about who they dealt with.
“Wherever you are, even in the midst of familiar faces, ensure that your safety is paramount.
Don’t be too trusting to let the entire rope out to somebody without holding the end of it, so that in case of danger, you can easily pull back,” the minister said.
She described the development as “very unfortunate” and “heartbreaking” but also a lesson for Ghanaians to take pragmatic steps to stop it from reoccurring.
Background
Vyacheslav Trahov, a Russian man, secretly recorded his encounters with some Ghanaian ladies he lured to his hotel room and had an affair with.
After the act, he shared the videos of his escapades with the young ladies online.
African and Russian media have identified Trahov as a self-styled “pick-up artist” and online blogger in his 30s.
There are claims that Trahov used a pair of sunglasses fitted with a camera to film the encounters and circulated them on social media.
The actions of the Russian citizen flout the country’s cyber-security laws.
Under the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038), anyone who publishes explicit images of children or adults without full consent can face up to 25 years in prison.
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection in a statement said an initial investigation had established the suspect had likely left the country.
The Minister of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Sam George, said he had invited the Russian Ambassador in Accra to a meeting to discuss the issue.
“We will request the Russian authorities – and that is why I have invited the Russian Ambassador – to work with our law enforcement.
“We want the gentleman to be brought back to Ghana, extradited to Ghana for him to face the rigours of our law.”
Russia, however, does not extradite its citizens, except in extreme circumstances.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh