Deborah Vanessa Could Be Arrested

The pretty TV presenter/model/ musician was worried about what she claimed to be false reports of her raking in millions of cedis with her nude photo on social media but she has more to worry about after the revelation that, she could be arrested over her spreading of the said money-making nude picture(s).

Legal luminary, John Assan Benson, has advised that any Ghanaian can lodge an official complain to the police for Debora Vanessa Owusu Bonsu aka Deborah Vanessa or Sister Debbie –to be arrested for circulating her naked pictures on the internet.

Unknown to many Ghanaians, the public circulation of naked pictures or videos – whether willingly or unwillingly is a criminal offence – it’s against Ghana’s Criminal Act.

The Criminal Act states: “A person who publishes or offer for sale an obscene book, writing, or representation commits a misdemeanor”- section 280 of Criminal Offences Act, 1960.(Act 29) Section 281 (1) of Act 29 also states that “A person commits a misdemeanor (a) for the purpose of or by way of trade, or for the purpose of distribution or public exhibition , makes , produces, or has in his possession any one or more obscene writing , drawings , prints , paintings, printed matter, picture, emblem , photographs, cinematography films or other obscene objects.”

The Criminal Code of Ghana debars anyone from publishing or offering for sale, any material that has the tendency to deprave societal morals. Any publication that is unnecessarily and improperly calculated to excite passions or corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences can be held for promoting obscenity.

Obscenity also involves having in your possession, putting into circulation or publicly exhibiting obscene drawings, prints, posters, photographs or any other related obscene objects. This means that downloading indecent materials and images from the internet as is often done, also amounts to a criminal offence, even though there are no plans to publish or circulate the obscene objects.

This is because downloading constitutes a pseudo- photograph (would-be). Moreover, downloading in effect is making a new copy of the original material. Possessing a material of obscene nature amounts to an offence, whether or not there is intent to circulate it. For the purposes of trading or sale in obscene publication, if any person imports, conveys or exports materials related to obscenity, that person also commits a criminal offence.

In an interview with Lawyer Benson, he corroborated the illegality in Deborah Vanessa’s conduct. “It’s criminal! Under our criminal codes, you can’t circulate nude pictures of yourself or another person. You can’t publish that. She (Vanessa) who put it out there and all those who further circulated are all liable.”

He added that, “Even the newspapers in town that carries naked pictures of girls on their front pages commits criminal acts! Unfortunately, that portion of the law nobody seems interested in. The police are not interested in enforcing it” he explained.

Though the paper drew Lawyer Benson’s attention to the fact that Deborah Vanessa willingly snapped and uploaded her nude picture unto her Instagram page, he insisted that her will to share is what even makes the case worse. “On her own, she can pose nude and snap but the moment it’s published or circulated in the public, it becomes criminal under our criminal codes!” he emphasized.

He also advised that, “Any Ghanaian can lodge an official complaint at the Police Station for her to be invited, arrested and prosecuted.”

Sister Debbie confirmed on Neat FM’s Tuesday Entertainment Ghana on 20th Jan, 2014, her action without mincing words. She said: “Boudoir photography is into arts and modeling as well. That is something I do and I am passionate about. In our society, majority of us are not used to such photographs, which is fine,” she said.

Boudoir photography is another form of photography that has to do with taking sexually suggestive images of nude women or women in lingerie at luxurious hotel suites. According to Sister Debbie, the artistic nude picture was barter between herself and her photographer who was working on one of her projects.

“The artistic nude picture which was taken in June 2014 is a barter trade between me and my photographer and that is not the first nude picture that I have put out there. I have three sets. I said barter because when I need promo pictures which should cost me over GH¢2,000, the photographer will do it for me,” she added.

The ‘Borla’ singer, who received a lot of bashing from her Ghanaian fans after her nude pictures were released, disclosed that when she gets those negative remarks about her nude pictures she does not get angry.

She continued: “When people see the picture and they don’t like it, I don’t get mad. It is not a problem because if you don’t understand, it is normal that you would dislike it or something. I feel as a human being, if you are passionate about something you should do it as long as it is legal and it won’t affect anyone or you won’t be attacking anyone.”

She also admitted that since she posted the picture on Instagram, views on her YouTube account had shot up massively.

“When I found out that the picture was already out there and people were tweeting, I also posted it myself so that people will not think it was a leaked picture. Around that period, the views for my ‘Borla’ video had gone down and, yes, after I posted the picture myself, my views shot up to about 5,000 views. So yes, it did help and I would agree to the fact that I used it to push myself,” she noted.

She recently expressed her happiness at a recent feature of her naked picture by a Romanian newspaper, LiberTatea Lumea. In the publication, she is praised for outshining Kim Kardashian.

Deborah, who was the 1st runner-up of Miss Malaika Beauty Contest in 2004, again, posted a picture of the newspaper publication on her Instagram page and remarked:

“I woke up in Romanian newspaper #LiberTateaLumea in @mummyzboi ‘s locker room in Cluj!!! It says that I’m one of the most loved Ghanaian artistes especially because of my songs and extremely hot pictures and that African media soon forgot about Kim K’s nude pics after I posted mine to the delight of my fans.”