Mother of 2 remanded over fake kidnap call

The Takoradi Magistrate Court has remanded Lucy Awortwi, a mother of two who placed calls to falsely allege that her two children had been kidnapped.

Lucy who was on a police enquiry bail was rearrested Tuesday and put before court charged with deceit of a public officer. She will return to court on Valentine’s Day, February 14.

Her false kidnap claim sent the police in Takoradi on a wild goose chase when it later emerged that the wanted ‘kidnapper’ was her ex-husband who had her blessing to travel with the children.

The police said Lucy, in her late 20s, admitted placing the call to the police to arrest her ex-husband to teach him a lesson by capitalizing on her ex-husband’s request to send their two children to visit their grandmother at Beposo in the Shama District.

The police maintained that Lucy had called the police emergency line to complain that someone had kidnapped her two children. And with increasing reports of kidnapping in the country, particularly in Sekondi-Takoradi, the police quickly deployed personnel to the location Lucy had provided, only to realize she had misled them with a premeditated ploy to put her ex-husband in trouble.

The GSTS student
In a related development, the 18-year-old final-year student of the Ghana Secondary Technical Senior High School (GSTS) who allegedly conspired with friends to demand a ransom of GH¢9,000 from his parents under the guise of being kidnapped, will be put before court Wednesday.

De-Vreeze Quaynoo allegedly faked his kidnapping with school mates.

Police said they were pursuing his accomplices, whose names were given as Anthony Osei-Prempeh, Elijah Sam, one Daniel and Evelyn.

According to the Metropolitan Police Crime Officer, Superintendent Alhaji Musah Hussein Awinaba, Daniel and De-Vreeze bought and registered a new SIM card to be used in making calls for the money-extorting misadventure.

SIM Card
He said Daniel was given the SIM card to call De-Vreeze’s parents and relatives who lived at Sefwi Wiawso, caliming that De-Vreeze had been kidnapped and the assailants were demanding a ransom of GH¢9,000.

Briefing the Daily Graphic, he said at 9:20p.m. last Wednesday, the Senior Housemaster of GSTS, Mr Bernard Adu Ampako informed the police that Quaynoo had left the school premises about 3p.m. and had subsequently been reported kidnapped by an unknown caller.

The housemaster explained that the Assistant School Prefect, who was using De-vreeze’s phone, had received a call from a strange voice that De-vreeze had been kidnapped for which a GH¢9,000 ransom was being demanded.

Intelligence 
He said investigators were immediately sent to gather intelligence during which they found that the victim was with some of his friends in a house around the Takoradi Secondary School (TADISCO).

Alhaji Awinaba said when the team arrived at the scene, they found De-vreeze’s school uniform in the house and asked how the uniform got there.

The landlady, he said, told the police that De-vreeze and the other alleged accomplices namely Osei-Prempeh, Daniel and Evelyn, visited her son, Elijah Sam, the previous night and stayed until 10 p.m. when she asked them to go back home.

The landlady said although they left, they returned to her son the following morning with an explanation that they were there to study.