15 April,2016
The juvenile court in Accra will on Wednesday, April 20, 2016 commence the hearing of a case in which a Catholic Reverend Father stands accused of being the father of a six-month-old boy whom he is alleged to have abandoned.
The plaintiff, Josephine Ganyoame, 24-year-old woman, has filed a suit in court accusing Rev Fr Yves-Lucien Evaga Njana, a Cameroonian Catholic priest and diplomat based in Ghana, of neglecting responsibility towards a six month-old child he allegedly fathered.
In the suit filed on April 7, the plaintiff is seeking a declaration that the respondent’s irresponsibility breaches the rights of the child to a name, basic necessities of life, welfare and social protection.
She is further praying the court to direct the Reverend Father to subject himself to a paternity test in order to establish he is the biological father of the child, among other reliefs.
The Weekend Finder newspaper reports Friday that when it contacted Rev Father Yves-Lucien Evaga Njana, he admitted to having a sexual relationship with the lady but denied being the father of the child.
He claimed that he used a condom each time they had sex and could therefore not have impregnated the lady.
He indicated that all efforts to get the girl to go for a paternity test have proven futile.
Joshepine Ganyoname says she rejected the test because she wanted it ordered by a court so the result cannot be altered.
Josephine revealed she met Rev Father Njana one night in October 2014 when she was nearly knocked down by a car driven by the reverend minister.
She said after the incident, the Reverend Father then expressed interest in supporting her education at the university and further made good his promise by paying her admission fee at the University of Professional Studies, where she started a degree programme in Business Administration.
She alleged that few weeks later, the Reverend Father started making sexual advances towards her.
She narrated that when she told her friends about the advances of her benefactor, she was told that it was a normal demand benefactors make of their beneficiaries.
“So the first day he took me to his house, I spent the whole night at his residence. The following week, he came for me again. So in two weeks we had met three times.”
She said when she latter realised that she had taken seed, she informed Father Yves-Lucien Evaga Njana, who was then outside the country.
She claimed further that when Father Yves-Lucien returned, he took her to the Obaatampa Women Hospital at East Legon for an abortion, which she refused to the displeasure of the priest.
Father Lucien explained that when the test was done, it indicated that the pregnancy was one week old, a period when he was out of the country, which raised doubts in his mind as to whether he was truly the one responsible.
Josephine continued that Father Yves-Lucien thereafter gave her an amount of ₵20,000 for the upkeep of the pregnancy.
She said she used ₵9,600 of the amount to rent a single room self-contained apartment at East Legon at ₵200 a month for three years, with the rest of the money going into taking care of the pregnancy and an amount of ₵6,000 used to purchase a plot of land at Afienya.
She claimed that after delivery, Father Yves-Lucien refused to take responsibility of the child. She therefore wants the court to compel the priest to subject himself to a paternity test and take full responsibility for the child.
But Father Lucien says he had made every effort to get Josephine to subject the child to a paternity test but to no avail.
He indicated his readiness to go for the paternity test if ordered by the court, but said as at the times of this interview, he had not been served with the suit.
– Weekend Finder
