Couple sell child for ?38m

Nkawkaw (Eastern Region) -- The Nkawkaw police have arrested a couple, Kwaku Mesisu and Afua Asantewaa, both farmers of Nkawanda No. 2 near Nkawkaw, for allegedly conspiring to sell a three-year old boy for ?38 million.

A police source told Chronicle that on February 2, this year, the police - acting on a tip-off that the couple was offering the boy for sale - went to the village and one of the police officers posed as a Mallam and expressed interest in buying the child.

The accused persons put ?38 million price tag on the boy, (name witheld). The police officer paid ?1 million as part payment and promised to settle the difference the following day.

After receiving the ?1 million they handed over the boy to the police officer. The other police personnel who had laid ambush then rushed onto the scene, but the couple on seeing the police attempted to escape but were arrested after a hot chase.

In an interview with the child’s biological mother, Akua Agyekumwaa, who hails from of Twenease, near Osino in the Eastern region, said the accused persons had both been her old friends and approached her during the Christmas festivities that they wanted the little boy to spend holidays with them, and that she did not hear anything from them until the police informed her of the couple’s attempt to sell the boy.

The accused persons were arraigned before the Nkawkaw magistrate court yesterday, Wednesday 12, and remanded in prison custody.