Crime & Punishment of Thursday, 7 May 2015

Source: Daily Guide

Stolen baby found

Barely a day after DAILY GUIDE reported that a three-month-old baby girl had been stolen by an unknown woman at Wassa Akropong in the Western Region, the baby has been found healthy and kicking.

The little girl, according to sources, was found in a town called Adukwaa, near Huni Valley in the Prestea/Huni Valley District.

The three-month-old baby girl was reported to have been stolen by an unidentified woman at Wassa Akropong on Thursday, April 30, 2015 at about 3pm near the old chief’s palace.

The visibly joyous father, Prince Owusu Ansah, explained that after the child got missing the couple had been praying with the hope of seeing her.

He noted that miraculously, a taxi driver was explaining to a friend about the lost child after DAILY GUIDE published the story in its May 5, 2015 edition.

Prince Owusu Ansah said the taxi driver’s friend remarked that he had seen a woman at Adukwaa who claimed that she had given birth after visiting a pastor for a child. According to the friend, the residents were very surprised because they asserted that they did not see any sign of the woman being pregnant.

A lady, who was passing by, heard the conversation between the driver and his friend and rushed to a local radio station to announce it, thereby alerting the police.

In the early hours of May 6, 2015, the driver and the friend led the police, reporters of the local radio station as well as the parents of the girl, to the residence of the alleged baby thief at Adukwaa.

“When we got to the town, we went straight to the woman’s room and found our baby lying in a bed while the alleged thief, whose name was given only as Yaa Yaa, and her mother were sitting by the baby,” Prince narrated.

He continued, “The woman and her mother were then arrested and brought to the Wassa Akropong police station.”

Prince Owusu Ansah and her wife, Charity, thanked the media for their efforts in helping to find their baby.

It is alleged that on that fateful day the baby thief posed as a visitor and agreed to carry the baby when the mother (of the little girl) was reportedly going to the market to purchase some foodstuffs.

The husband indicated that when the wife left, he also went to buy some bolts and nuts somewhere in the market being a dealer in bicycles, but when he later enquired about the whereabouts of his child from the wife she said the woman collected her when she (wife) was going to the market. Prince said he was not aware of that arrangement; and the woman took the baby away.