60-year-old 'child trafficker' arrested

Europa

July 6, 2017 1:24 PM

The suspect was arreste upon a tip off at the Kpassa lorry station on board an Accra bound Metro Mass bus with the minors.

The suspect, Eric Akwesi Amponsah

The Volta Regional Police Command has arrested a 60-year-old for allegedly attempting to traffic six children at Kpassa in the Nkwanta North District.

Eric Akwesi Amponsah was arrested last Friday, June 30, upon a tip off at the Kpassa lorry station on board an Accra bound Metro Mass bus with the minors, aged between 10 and 17 years.

“Police received information that a man was on board an Accra bound Metro Mass bus and has some six children with him, three boys and three girls.

“The informant said he suspected the children might have been trafficked because the man was trying to comfort the children not to be depressed travelling with him. So based on that we intercepted the bus, arrested the man and rescued the children” Inspector Joseph Nakoja, Head of the Police Anti-Human Trafficking Unit told Accra-based Starr FM.

The suspect comes from Dunkwa-on-Offin in the Central Region, where he was going to give out the children to interested cocoa farmers, Inspector Nakoja said.

He said that the suspect upon further interrogation confirmed that in May and early June this year, he took nine other children to the same area in the Central region, where they are usually engaged on cocoa farms and galamsey sites, with a promise of paying them Ghc1,200 each at the end of the cocoa season.

“When we interrogated him further, he claimed that in May and early June, he recruited children from the same area on two occasions. The first instance, he recruited five children and the second instance, four children and they are all farming in Dunkwa-on-Offin.

“So this is the third time he came to recruit these children to again release them to interested cocoa farmers and he even said some are even into this galamsey business,” the Inspector explained.

The suspect was arraigned before a Ho Circuit Court on Wednesday and has since been remanded into custody to assist with further investigations.

Meanwhile, the six rescued children are under the care of the Police Anti-Human Trafficking Unit in Ho. Efforts are also being made to locate their families.

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