Woman Dumps Baby In Latrine

A 19-year-old woman at Abore, near Asokore in Ashanti, Linda Abena Bensowaa, was on Wednesday arrested by the police for dumping her one-and-half-year-old baby boy in a pit latrine.

The act was motivated by Bensowaa’s desire to travel to Abidjan.

The little boy, Kofi Bismarck, could not survive the ordeal and died but Linda was arrested before she could embark on her journey.

The Ashanti Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Gideon Boateng, who confirmed this said Linda was a hawker staying with one Madam Dorcas Cofie at Abore.

Mr Boateng said at about 9 a.m. that day, Linda went out to sell, taking her baby along with her.

He said Linda returned home at about 11p.m. without the child and when Madam Cofie questioned her she said she did not know his whereabouts.

Incidentally, that was the first time Linda had gone out to sell with the child and Madam Cofie suspected foul play.

She, therefore, asked Linda to go out with her and search for the child, but after about an hour’s search they could not find him. This heightened Madam Cofie’s suspicion.

Madam Cofie therefore, invited a male family friend to try to convince Linda to tell the truth and after some time, she confessed that she had dumped the child in a pit latrine near the Asokore SDA JSS.

Consequently, Linda was sent to the police station where she again confessed to the crime.

She told the police that it was not her intention to do that but a certain woman she could not name convinced her to perform the act so that she (the woman) could take her to Abidjan to practise prostitution as a means of earning a living.

The police together with some volunteers, managed to fetch the child from the pit latrine but they discovered that he was dead.

The body of the child has been deposited in the morgue for autopsy.

Linda was arraigned before a court at Effiduase on Thursday and was remanded in prison custody to re-appear on July 24.