Ghanaian media personality and broadcast journalist Afia Pokua (alias Vim Lady) has recounted an experience where she was sexually harassed on a bus.
Narrating her experience in a video on her social media platform, Vim Lady said she was on a bus from Tema to Accra, returning from an assignment, when she felt someone repeatedly touching her thighs. “This was a long time ago.
I used to work for a newspaper company, and on that day, when I was coming back from covering a story, I took a bus back to the office to file my story.
“On the journey, I noticed that someone was repeatedly touching my thighs. Since we were tightly packed and it was dark, I couldn’t do anything about it,” she recalled. She later discovered that the person next to her, the driver’s mate, had ejaculated all over her skirt.
She said she was so angry that she slapped him, and the other passengers beat him up. However, she refused to report the matter to the police, fearing stigma and victim-blaming. “It was when someone was alighting that I adjusted myself and noticed that the person next to me, the driver’s mate, had ejaculated all over my skirt.
“I was so angry that my first instinct was to slap him, and when the other passengers in the vehicle realised what he had done, they beat him up and told me to report the matter to the police station, but I refused,” she said.
She said she was traumatised by the incident and learned that many women have faced similar experiences of sexual harassment and assault on public transportation.
“I was so traumatised by the incident; it was the first time that something like that had happened to me. I later realised that a lot of men do that; they get onto public transport, sit next to ladies and attempt to fondle or molest these ladies,” she said.
She advised young ladies to be careful of their surroundings and the people around them, but she also called for more action from the authorities and society to end sexual violence.
Her testimony attracted varied reactions on social media, with many expressing sympathy, support and anger. Some also shared their own stories of sexual assault, highlighting the prevalence and severity of the problem.
