Boy kidnapped for ritual purposes found
After disappearing for about six months from his grandparents’ home at Amasaman in the Greater Accra Region, an 11-year-old boy who was allegedly kidnapped by his uncle for ritual purposes has been found alive.
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The boy, identified as Prince Kofi Doku, a Class Four pupil of the Oduman Amanfrom Basic School, near Nsakina, also in the Greater Accra Region, is said to have escaped from an uncompleted building where it was believed his maternal uncle had taken him to be sacrificed for rituals.
Prince was found with injuries to his chest and hands and he claimed he sustained the injuries when he jumped through an opening in a window in the uncompleted building.
He said he was knocked down by a motorbike as he ran for freedom.
His uncle, identified as Ebenezer Oblitey Commey, 35, whom the police described as a land guard, is in the custody of the police after failing to meet a bail term granted by an Accra Circuit Court.
Commey was arrested at Nsakina on June 11, 2016 after avoiding capture. The Accra Circuit Court had earlier granted him bail on charges of kidnapping in the sum of GH₵70,000, with three sureties, one of whom was to be justified.
The Public Relations Officer of the Accra Regional Police Command, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mrs Effia Tenge, who confirmed the story, told the Daily Graphic that the boy was found at the Kaneshie Market and taken to the Nima Police Station.
She said the police were looking for two other men who are believed to be Commey’s accomplices.
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Mrs Tenge said the police suspected that Commey’s accomplices had forcibly abducted the boy while he was sleeping under a street overpass and taken him to the Nima Police Station where Commey was being held.
Boy tells his story
Young Prince, who looked happy to be reunited with his family, told the Daily Graphic how he escaped from captivity and tried to trace his family without success.
He said on February 5, 2016, his uncle visited him in school and gave him and a friend of his GH₵2 each.
It had been earlier reported that Commey had given Prince GH₵10.
Prince said his uncle promised to take him somewhere but asked him not to inform his grandparents about it.
As was agreed, he said, his uncle came in a pick-up vehicle to pick him up.
“But I became afraid when I saw a pickaxe, a shovel and some other implements in the car when I sat down,” he said.
He said his uncle took him to an uncompleted house and locked him up in a dark dusty room where he stayed without food and water.
The boy, who could not tell the number of days he spent in the uncompleted house, said he managed to escape one night while his uncle was going round the house looking for a knife which he suspected would be used to kill him.
“Whenever I cried, he shouted at me to shut up,” Prince said.
He said he had a lucky break when he discovered an opening and managed to wriggle through it and escaped.
He said he ran through the bush behind the house until he saw a commercial bus and “begged the driver and his conductor, who said they were going to Kaneshie, to take me with them”.
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Prince, who is soft-spoken, said he ended up at the Kaneshie Market but because he could not find his way back home, he decided to sleep under the footbridge.
“Whenever I was hungry, I carried luggage for a fee, which I used for food,” he said.
Writer’s email:emelia.ennin@graphic.com.gh