A total of 18 suspected cases of kidnapping were reported to the Sekondi Police Command in the Western Region between February and October 2020.

However, all of the cases turned out to be a false alarm after thorough investigation by the police.

Sekondi Divisional Police Commander Chief Superintendent Dima Zoiku told the media in Sekondi-Takoradi that the police have been on high alert following the case involving the four missing Takoradi girls.

“Because of the four missing Takoradi Girls case, the police administration has decided not to take incidents of such nature as a joke or lightly and I can tell you on authority since assumption of office as the Divisional Commander for Sekondi, eighteen of the cases of missing children, abduction and kidnapping all turned out not to be true.”

According to him, the majority of the said cases revolve around young girls aged between 16 and 22 who faked their own abduction just so they can extort monies from the parents.

The Sekondi Divisional Commander added that what they have also observed is that some of the parents of the victims don’t care about the welfare of their children.

Chief Supt. Zoiku expressed worry at the rate at which such cases are being reported and warned that “offenders will be prosecuted when caught”.

“Parents must talk to their children to desist from these acts which is on the ascendancy in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis. The children themselves must watch out because the police will not countenance these attitudes, it is criminal so once we get you, we have to send you to court,” he said.

He recounted an episode in which a team of police personnel nearly got involved in an accident on the main Takoradi-Winneba road, in the process of arresting a male suspect who connived with his girlfriend to dupe her mother.

Only Monday, October 12, a Sekondi District Magistrate Court “B” presided over by her worship Rosemary Edith Hayford convicted two persons for faking their kidnapping.