The search for a better life for a daughter has led a woman to traffic her 6-week-old granddaughter so she can gather enough money to better the life of her daughter who lives in abject poverty.
Comfort Okine hatched the plan to traffic the daughter of Rita Amaglo, 29, after being told by friends that a nurse at a hospital in Kasoa can help her achieve her aim.
The entire plan was hatched when the 29-year-old plantain chips seller was pregnant with her sixth child; four of whom she had had with three different men.
“We will use the money to better our lives, particularly yours. I will rent a room for you and furnish it with flat screens and all other things you may need…,” Madam Okine assured the daughter whose husband, Patrick has traveled back to Sefwi in search of greener pastures.
When consulted, the bearded Patrick rejected the bid for the unborn child outright but could not make it in time to stop the mother-in-law from prosecuting her agenda due to the lockdown in Accra as part of efforts to curtail the spread of the COVID-19 disease.
The constant rejection of the idea did not however stop Madam Okine from carrying out her agenda weeks after the baby girl was delivered at home.
She kept constant touch with the mother performing all the duties of a traditional grandmother in the home of the new mother in Anyaa in the Ga Central District of the Greater Accra Region.
“One day, I went out to buy somethings to prepare food and by the time I returned, my child was no where to be found…I complained and I was told my mother had taken her out with her two-year-old sibling…,” she narrated.
According to Ms Amaglo, the mother returned home without the new born and when queried she said she had given the baby out to one of her sisters.
“My two-year-old also confirmed that my mother gave my daughter to a woman in a vehicle and several attempts at getting her to return the baby home has fallen on deaf ears as she keeps telling us stories…,” Ms Amaglo narrated.
Madam Okine has however kept her promise of renting and furnishing a room at Afuaman, near Ablekuma for Ms Amaglo and furnished it with some of the proceeds from the sale of the yet-to-be named six-week old baby girl.
“We indeed visited the house where the room has been rented at Afuaman but we were chased away with a cutlass by an angry son of the Landlady who wouldn’t want us to gather enough evidence for the story…,” Kwaku Nti, a producer of Angel 102.9FM’s Morning Show, An?pa B?fo?’ said on Thursday, June 4, 2020.
What the Landlady’s daughter could however not do was to prevent Police Officers from the Anyaa Police Station from accessing the unfenced house to arrest Madam Okine when she attempted to escape arrest under the cover of darkness.
“She is indeed in our custody and we have commenced investigations into the case and would soon process her for court…,” a CID investigating the case who pleaded anonymity confirmed her arrest to Captain Smart, host of the Morning Show.
Head of Forster Care Unit, Department of Social Welfare, Samuel Anaglatey commenting on this on An?pa B?fo? said the action of the lady is criminal in the laws of Ghana and must face the law.
“The social welfare will help with the tracing of the child while the Police will deal with the criminal case…it is not normal for someone to sell (traffic) a child under any circumstance…,” he said.
Mr Anaglate further revealed that the woman who helped in the trafficking of the baby would also be prosecuted when arrested.
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