Ghanaian Times

The Times also reports the arrest of the ex-Jusohene, Nana Owusu Akyaw Prempeh II, in a front page story. The paper says Nana prempeh has been arrested at a hideout in Accra in connection with the rowdyism at Juaso in the AsanteAkim South District of Ashanti, last Sunday. He is said to have breached the Public Order Act, which resulted in the loss of life and the destruction of property. Quoting police sources in Kumasi, the Times says Nana Prempeh was arrested in a special exercise mounted by the police in Accra. According to the paper, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Kojo Yankah, had warned that when Nana Prempeh was arrested, he would be held personally responsible for the breach of the peace, loss of life and destruction of property, as he had been sufficiently warned in advance against the holding of a procession and a party. Juaso is said to face a security problem because of a protracted chieftaincy dispute.

A five-year prison sentence imposed on a 20-year-old woman for child abduction, is carried by the Times in another front page story. The paper reports that Esi Awotwi, a 20-year-old trader in the Western Region,

Has been sentenced to five years imprisonment in hard labour by a Sekondi Circuit Tribunal for abducting an eight-year-old boy from Ghana to Ivory Coast. She pleaded not guilty. The Times quotes the prosecution as telling the tribunal chaired by Mr Mensah-Anyimah that on November 24, 1998, the boy Emmanuel Benyah, a class one pupil of the Shama Roman Catholic Primary School, was playing behind his house after school when Esi Awotwi approached him. The woman convinced the boy to carry her plantain for her with the promise that she would give him some of the plantain for his mother. Benyah obliged but instead of the short distance, the woman took him to Elubo, a border town in the Western Region, where she claimed was the point to collect the plantain from. The prosecution, the Times says told the court that no plantain was found there and because it was nightfall the two of them spent the night at Elubo. The next day, Esi Awotwi took Benyah through Jewi Wharf on the Ghana/Ivory Coast border, to Charkum. A town the Ivory Coast, where she bought food from Madam Awuah Amoah, a Ghanaian She later sneaked into town leaving the boy behind for three days. Madam Amoah became suspicious and therefore, thoroughly interrogated the boy. He told her of the ordeal he had gone through and furnished Madam Amoah with the address of his parents. Madam Amoah reported the matter to the Ghanaian chief in the town and Esi Awotwi was arrested when she resurfaced on November 28, 1998, for the boy.