Woman kills son with DDT

A 23-year-old woman has been arrested by the Amasaman police for allegedly putting dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) in a syringe which she used as enema for her one-and-a-half-year-old sick baby, which is suspected to have caused his death.

The incident occurred at Obeyeayia near Amansaman in the Ga West Municipality of the Greater Accra Region.

Regina Lamptey, a mother of three is alleged to have mixed the DDT insecticide with water and administered it on the child through the anus when the child showed signs of malaria.

The deceased, Shadrack Nyarko, allegedly died a few hours after the poisonous substance was administered to him.

He was reportedly buried the following day by the parents without reporting the matter to the police.

It was the grandmother of the deceased who later reported the matter to the police.

The Amasaman police quickly apprehended the mother to assist in the investigation, which has begun.

ASP Sabastian Adiyiga, the Amasaman District Crime Officer, said the incident occurred on April 10, 2015, but the child was buried the following day.

Upon interrogation, Madam Lamptey said her son was feeling feverish and so a friend advised her to use DDT as enema on the boy.

The woman said after she had finished preparing the meal, she went inside the bedroom to bring Shadrack, but found him foaming at the mouth and died later as she and others rushed the baby to the Amasaman Government Hospital.

ASP Adiyiga said efforts to trace the woman who advised Madam Lamptey to use the poisonous substance on the son proved futile, but investigations were still ongoing. The police, he said, are making frantic efforts to secure a permit to exhume the body for autopsy.

Lamptey has been provisionally charged with murder and would be sent to court soon.