Alleged kidnappers abandon victim over gender preference

Some unidentified men who allegedly kidnapped a teenager, on Friday, in Ho later abandoned him when an unidentified voice told the perpetrators that they rather needed a girl.

The victim, (name withheld), narrated to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) from his hospital bed that some unidentified men took him hostage outside their gated house around Area 52, when he stepped out to find a place to urinate.

He said he remembered a hand blindfolding him, and later on, a voice saying a female was preferred over a male, while he had been kept in a sack with hands and face tied with ropes, in an unknown environment.

Mr Selorm Awadi, the father of the 14-year-old boy, said his son was picked by the men, who managed to conceal the victim in a white sack.

However, he was found abandoned in the area, where he was earlier kidnapped.

He told the GNA that his son had returned from buying bread for the household before 0900 hours, however, shortly after that errand he could not be traced.

Later on, word went round that a boy was abandoned in a sack around the popular Mirage pub area, in Ho.

Mr Awadi said he thought such an incident was far away from him, so he never worried, until he was confronted with the reality.

Mr Prosper Kofi Pi-Bansah, Ho Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), who conveyed the victim to the Municipal Hospital for medical attention, said this could be a clear case of a ritual operation gone good for the victim and bad for the kidnappers, while confirming the incident to the GNA.

The MCE appealed to parents and guardians to be watchful over their children, especially teenagers, to keep them from danger at all times.

Meanwhile, hospital sources said the condition of the victim was stabilised after receiving treatment.

The Municipal Police Command has begun investigations into the alleged kidnapping episode.

Source: GNA