…Mother of 12-year-old boy charges as kidnap attempt fails
…But MP says, ``The boy stole my things``
The [New Patriotic Party - NPP] Member of Parliament (MP) for Tain Constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region, Mr. Joe Danquah, has been cited in a case in which 12-year old Michael Edem Ahouadjinou, was forcefully arrested from his home, assaulted and dragged to a police station.
According to Madan Akua Sika Nkansa, mother of the boy, the MP and two others came to her apartment at Sakumono at around 8:30pm on December 1, 2006, and knocked her door saying they were looking for her.
She told the paper that at the time, she was in her bedroom with Michael and his sister at the hall. “So when they knocked, Michael opened the door and they immediately bundled him and decided to take him away, accusing him of being a thief,” she said.
She said when they bundled him, the boy started shouting, drawing the attention of neighbours who trouped out to find out what was happening.
“At this time they had started beating the boy mercilessly. People gathered around to help me but they wouldn’t stop beating the child. Eventually, they took the child to the police station, which is just a stone throw from my house and that was after I had myself received a ground-landing slap from the MP,” Michael’s mother narrated.
The distressed mother said when the boy was grabbed by the group after he opened the door, they did not intend to take him to the police station until the intervention of some youth in the area who put up a resistance agaist the MP and his men. She explained that they initially took him in a direction completely opposite the direction of the police station, “and they are the only people who can tell what they wanted to do to my last born.”
When Mr. Danquah was contacted at his Sakumono flat, he admitted being among the people who went to, as he put it, “arrest the boy.” According to him, Michael had been spotted the previous day, carrying a television set that belonged to him.
Mr. Danquah, a former District Chief Executive (DCE) for Wenchi West, who had a lot of problems with Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and former MP for Wenchi West, said when the boy was questioned about the television set, he claimed that he was carrying it from the room of his father who had traveled.
“The boy has been coming here every day, and all the people here know him. Look, the mother should better advise him to desist from his present habit else if he grows with it we will all be in trouble,” the 34-year-old legislator stated.
The MP also narrated how almost all movable properties in his house were stolen by a group of people while he was away.
He said because his things, including computers belonging to a colleague MP, Mr. Felix Twumasi-Appiah were stolen from the room, he had always remained alert. “My target is not the boy.
I have heard there is a gang that has been terrorizing the people living in these flats. Ask any MP you see around and he or she will tell you how we are being terrorized by thieves at this place. I must confirm that I was among the people who went to arrest the boy but it is not true that we beat him,” the MP said.
A police medical report that was sighted by The Chronicle however suggests that the boy might have gone under some form of physical assault. The report by a medical officer partly states, “ facial swelling with abrasion on right side of face, tendon swelling on right knee-caused possibly (by) blunt object. Swollen right hand caused possibly by a human bite.”
On Sunday, when this reporter visited the home of the boy, the mother said he had been taken to a Psychiatric hospital for a check up. She explained that at night the boy shouts in his sleep as a result of the traumatic experience he went through on the day the MP and his group molested him.
Police officers at the Sakumono Police station did not give the details of the case to the paper. The first to be contacted was one Corporal Acquah, who was mentioned as the officer investigating the matter. He in turn directed the reporter to his senior colleague but he wouldn’t also talk to the paper about the issue, saying, “the officer in charge is not in, so we cannot tell you the details of the case. Maybe you can come tomorrow to talk to him about it.”
It was however confirmed that there was a case involving the MP and the boy, with the MP as the complainant and the boy as the suspect.
The Chronicle gathered further that yesterday morning, a group of people went to the Sakumono School complex and attempted to kidnap the boy while he was in school.
A teacher of the school, who happened to be Michael’s teacher, Mr. George Agyeman, told the paper that, yesterday morning at about 10:45, two gentlemen came to the school and attempted to kidnap the pupil but for an alarm raised by the pupils that attracted he (the teacher) and his colleagues to rescue the boy after a little struggle with the two people.
“I got them locked inside the school premises and asked one my colleague teachers to drive to the police station to bring a police officer. So later the police came and arrested the people and took them to the police station where they are now,” the teacher explained.
The teacher said when they questioned the two people they claimed that the MP had sent them. He said the two gentlemen said Michael had stolen computers, a table top fridge and a TV set belonging to the MP, hence their decision to arrest him.
