Crime & Punishment of Sunday, 19 April 2015

Source: GNA

Two human traffickers remanded

Two people arrested over alleged attempts to sell a 13-year-boy into slavery were on Friday put before the Bibiani Circuit Court presided over by Mr Baptist Kwadwo Filson.

The pleas of Shaibu Mohammed and Akwasi Agyapong were not taken and they were remanded in prison custody to make their next appearance on Thursday, May 21.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Emma Madona Abotsi told the court that Shaibu lives in the same house with the father of the boy, Mr Samuel Sarpong, at Aboaso near Tarkwa in the Western Region.

The accused person hatched a plan to poison the victim for alleged disrespectful behaviour towards the elderly people in the neighbourhood and informed his accomplice about what he planned to do.

Agyapong, who lives in a village called Duaso, convinced him to drop the plan and instead sell him into slavery.

Shaibu then traveled to Bibiani to look for a potential buyer and as luck would have it, the man he approached to discuss the deal happened to be a police officer.

The officer feigned interest and they settled on Ghc200,000. He was arrested when he showed up with the boy to collect the money.