Stop pressuring women to have children – Sociologist blames society for Josephine's hoax

Justice Siaw told Accra-based Starr FM on Monday that societal pressure may have compelled the Takoradi resident to stage the hoax that has held the entire nation spell-bound for many days.

“What I think this woman did was to carry this fake pregnancy for people in the community to see that she was pregnant so that those who saw her as barren will take their minds off her.

“This woman could have been drawn to this problem by social pressure because in the Ghanaian community if you marry and you don’t have kids, it means you have an issue…I think our society should stop putting undue pressure on women to have children,” Siaw said as quoted by Starrf.com.gh.

Josephine Panyin Mensah has been charged with two charges of deceiving a public officer and publication of false news with intent to cause fear and panic.

She was brought before the Takoradi Habour Circuit Court A on Monday where she pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The police administration had claimed that she confessed during interrogation to faking her pregnancy and kidnapping, hence the decision to arraign her.

She was discharged from the Effia-Nkwanta hospital on Friday where a second medical examination conducted on her proved she was never pregnant as she claimed.

News of Josephine Panyin Mensah’s kidnapping with her 9-month pregnancy at Takoradi left the country on tenterhooks while security agencies were busy combing everywhere to rescue her.

It was claimed that some alleged kidnappers later contacted her mother to demand a ransom. It all turned out to be fabricated stories. She was later found in Axim with bloodstains all over her body while she looked distraught and could not speak.

“There is a greater possibility that she might appear before the court because she manufactured all these things with a figment of her own imagination and put the police into business. And we deployed a 40-member search team and even when we located her through public assistance, we took her to the hospital with policemen providing security, and where she claimed to have attended antenatal clinics, it turned out to be false. We went in for a second opinion and got a team of doctors to work on her,” ACP Kwesi Ofori, Acting Director-General of Police Public Affairs said.

She told the police that she was pregnant at a point but had a miscarriage and did not want to lose her husband, so she has been wearing a silicone belly all this while without the knowledge of her husband Michael Simons.

Stop pressuring women to have children – Sociologist blames society for Josephine's hoax

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