Police grab 5 for holding 9 children

The Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police Service has arrested five Camerounians said to be holding nine children at Kokrobite near Bortianor Ngleshie Amanfro in the Greater Accra Region in a suspected case of child trafficking.

The suspects, aged between 34 and 48, are a woman — who, the police say, is the key suspect and four men.

The rescued children, who are all Camerounians, are aged between three and 14.

Shelter

The Director of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit, Chief Superintendent of Police Mike Baah, confirming the arrest of the suspects to the Daily Graphic, added that the rescued children were currently being kept in a shelter.

The children are due to undergo medical screening and rehabilitation and were already being interviewed to elicit information that would help the police in their investigations, Chief Supt Baah said.

"We have not yet concluded if the children are being trafficked. We have commenced investigations and we can draw a better conclusion after our investigations," he said.

Confirmation

Mr Baah confirmed that the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit had taken over the case and was working around the clock to get to the bottom of the issue.

He explained that it was important to establish whether the children were being trafficked for exploitation or for something else.

The five suspects were arrested at about 10 p.m. on Friday, March 12, 2021, based on the suspicion of a police dispatch rider, whose identity is not immediately known.

The dispatch rider is said to have stopped a vehicle in which the suspects and the children were traveling and interrogated the occupants of the vehicle.

The dispatch rider handed them over to the Bortianor police when he realised that the suspects were fumbling with their responses.

During interrogation at the police station, the suspects claimed the children were relations and they were attending a birthday party of another relation at Kokrobite.

The woman, who is the key suspect, is said to have told the police that she brought them to Ghana in November 2020 so they would further their education in the country.