A 68-year-old woman from Nyanyano, Ama Forson, has spoken emotionally about the years she spent behind bars after being convicted of a drug-related offence she insists she did not commit.
Forson was sentenced to 15 years at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison on allegations that she was involved in the sale of cannabis, commonly known as “wee”. She spent four years in custody before being released following an appeal.
In an interview with Crime Check TV on YouTube, Forson described her experience in prison as deeply traumatic, saying the hardship, disgrace and emotional pain had left her struggling to cope with life after her release.
She said she had at times felt so overwhelmed that she considered ending her life.
Forson continues to maintain that she was innocent and had been wrongly convicted despite not committing the offence for which she was jailed.
Recounting the circumstances surrounding her arrest, she said she was selling food and alcohol at ACC and had been allowed by a landlord to sleep in an unfinished building, which the landlord also used for smoking.
She said she was on her way to deliver money to a woman she worked for when her young child told her that about 17 police officers had come looking for her over allegations that she was selling cannabis.
Forson said she eventually went to the police, where she was handcuffed and taken away as her child cried.
“I was like, if I am selling wee and food, I wouldn’t have even come when you called me. But they said I had to go to the ACC Police Station. My child followed us, crying. Someone took the child and I slept at the ACC cells,” she recounted.
She said she was taken to the Kasoa Police Station the following day, where officers allegedly told her they had found a woman’s bag containing a cement paper and a bottle with suspected cannabis.
According to Forson, the items were linked to her despite her denial.
“I said all I could say but they still said I was guilty,” she stated.
She further claimed that she spent more than two years in police cells before being sentenced and alleged that she had to provide fuel for officers to transport her to court.
The prolonged incarceration also took a heavy emotional toll, particularly after the death of her only son.
“I was jailed for 15 years and someone explained to me what the judge was saying. I spent more than two years in the cells before I was jailed. I was always buying petrol for the police officers to take me to court,” she said.
Reflecting on her life since leaving prison, Forson said the experience had left her devastated and struggling to rebuild what she lost.
“For what I have been through, I feel my life has been destroyed. I cry always and all my things have been destroyed. When I came out, my child was also dead,” she said.
Her account highlights the lasting emotional and personal consequences she says she has faced following the years spent in custody and the loss of her only son.
