Leticia Boakye, born on June 15,2002 in Accra-Ghana has left the Country for fear of being persecuted.
Her well-founded fear of persecution is based on her membership of a particular social group of her sexual orientation.
She is a lesbian.
Leticia Boakye is in a same- sex relationship with Agnes Appiah who she initially met in her high school days.
Agnes and Leticia were seen in public on many occasions. They both attended several functions together and were engaged in several same-sex activities until they ran into trouble on May 06,2023.
On may 06, 2023, her partner together with herself went out to a cousin’s baby’s naming ceremony, after which they both decided to go to her house to “enjoy” themselves and to spend the weekend together.
The neighbors saw her partner hanging out and enjoying each other’s company.
They did not know the neighbors were keeping an eye on them.
The duo were hugging and touching each other at a corner of her house that she thought was out of view from the neighbors if anyone walked pass by.
They were kissing and unknown to them four youth of the community vigilante group who were monitoring them rushed to the scene and shouted insults at them.
She later realized that the youth has been observing them from a wall around her house.
That youth said they have information that she’s a lesbian.
The youth said they were acting on the directions of the community leaders to monitor their activities after the leaders had received report from two Senior school girls in the area who accused her of trying to “woo”them into lesbian relationships.
The youth further added that the community members are concerned that she has many female friends usually visiting her, but they have not seen a man in her life before.
The four youth beat them and threatened them with rape.
They said they would teach them a lesson by kidnapping the two and gang rape them to taste the sweetness of the male organ .
They said they were possessed with some demons and so they would rape them to exorcise the lesbianism spirit from them. The youth shouted several insults on them and called them names.
The youth said the two female friends are evil persons who should not be allowed to live anywhere in the country.
It had been established that,On June 3, 2023, they were caught again by some youth of the same community.
The youth had followed them to a local restaurant where they visit for dinner.
” It was in the late evening so after dinner, my partner and I took a walk to back of the restaurant out of everyone’s view, and we started fondling and kissing.We did not know the youth were around observing our activities. Out from no where three vigilante youth from my community approached us.
It was dark. The youth carried a flashlight and pointed the flashlight on our face.my partner and I received slaps from the youth who said they had arrested us and would take us to the police station.
The youth said they would take us somewhere to gang raped us to teach us a lesson.
we screamed for help and some patrons who were leaving the restaurant and the security guard of the restaurant intervened and challenge the youth that they were not a policeman,and therefore cannot place us under arrest.The security guard said my partner and I are patrons of the restaurant so we would not allow the youth to mistreat us in that manner.The security guard wanted to know where the youth were taking us to and he demanded that the youth leave us to go our way.
The youth became angry and there was a heated argument between the security guard and the youth who were holding my partner and I.
In the cause of the confrontation betweensecurity guard and the youth I tried to free myself from the youth who was holding me by my hand. One of the youth hit me with an object in my abdomen, which led to a cut. I was bleeding.The cut I sustained has left a scar on my abdomen . Wemanaged to free ourselves from the youth and flagged a taxi nearby to flee from the restaurant.
After the incident at the restaurant, I sneaked into my house late in the night and collected some clothing and some necessary documents and went to hide at a cousin’s house at Amasaman,near Accra.
I remained at the cousin’s house in hiding until my departure from Ghana on July 15, 2023.
I was informed that the youth have been monitoring my home with a view of coming in contact with me to attack me and to teach me a lesson.
I believe if I had remained in Ghana, the youth in my community would have my traced my whereabouts anywhere in the country to kill me or gang rape me and hand me over to the police for the necessary action to be taken against me for being a lesbian.Ghana does not accept same-sex activities and person involved in such same-sex activities are subjected to inhumane treatment including lynching and police arrest.
I respectfully request the Canadian government to grant me a protection by accepting me as a convention refugee and as a person in need of protection in order to save my life.”She appealed
