2 children fake their kidnap; demand GHC200 ransom from parents

Two children within the Bolgatanga Municipality of the Upper East Region over the weekend faked their kidnap to demand GH¢200 from their parents to settle a soccer bet game debt, police have confirmed to MyNewsGh.com.

In the first instance, 15-year-old Akolgo Charles who is a student of the Sacred Heart Junior High school called her mother Akolgo Azerebisa on phone at about 11:37am last Saturday and disclosed that he had been kidnapped by an unknown person who was demanding for a ransom cash amount of GH¢200 before he would be released.

A formal complaint was lodged and Police negotiated with the alleged kidnapper over the payment of the ransom in other to track the name of the mobile money number given to the mother to deposit the money into.

When Police checked the name, the boy’s mother name appeared on the mobile money account. This raised suspicion that the boy may have staged his own abduction and as a result the ransom was paid to track him.

He was subsequently arrested upon getting home on Sunday June 23, 2019 and during interrogation, confessed that he needed money to settle a debt of soccer bet game and since the mother would not agree to give him money to pay for the debt, he lied to the mother through a different MTN SIM card which her mother was not aware and through the assistance of magic voice software on his Techno phone he called the mother and lied to her that he has been kidnapped inside an uncompleted house at Yorogo.

The cash amount of GH¢120 out of the GH¢200 was retrieved and the suspect in police custody assisting with investigations.

In a related development, Aziz Imoro Gumah aged 14 years who also claimed he was kidnapped by unknown persons but was later found swimming in a local dam has also been arrested.

He had gone missing for days and radio station made for the public to assist find his whereabouts only for to be spotted swimming in a dam located behind the Bolgatanga Polytechnic by two of his brothers namely Elnarta and Diodong respectively.