Over 30,000 Ghanaians petition their President to reverse actress’ jail sentence for posing nude before her son for an Instagram photo

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More than 30,000 people have signed a petition asking Ghana’s President, Nana Akufo-Addo to reverse the jail sentence handed to Ghanaian actress Akuapem Poloo.

Rosemond Brown, better known as Akuapem Poloo, was sentenced to three months in prison Friday last week after she was convicted of posing nude before her 7-year old son for an Instagram photo.

According to the Dailymail, section 280 of Ghana’s Criminal and Other Offences Act 1960 states that: ‘whoever publishes or offers for sale any obscene book, writing, or representation, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour.’

Section 281 of the act states that the maker, producer, possessor, importer, exporter, advertiser, or even anyone who deals with or assists in the circulation either directly or indirectly of ‘obscene’ material is also guilty.

The act is used to punish those who post pictures deemed obscene online.

According to GhanaWeb, another case that saw the law applied involved a man who caught his wife in bed with another man, and filmed his discovery.

One group called Ghana Creative Industry filed petition at change.org calling on Ghanaian authorities to release the jailed actress. Below are some of their posts obtained by BBC

American rapper, Cardi B who described the Ghanaian actress as her “twin sister” during her visit to Ghana in 2019, tweeted the following on Saturday in response to question by Afromusik

I seen a lot of Americans do photoshoots like that .Even tho is not my style I don’t think she was going for sexual more going the natural idea.I think jail is a bit harsh .Maybe social media probation or community service. https://t.co/ncdwvggvFK
— iamcardib (@iamcardib) April 17, 2021