Ghana Police Serviceconducted an intelligence-led operation and investigation resulting in the arrest of six individuals, four of whom are juveniles and students of Presbyterian Boys Senior High School (PRESEC) in Legon, Accra, for orchestrating a staged kidnapping incident.
Among the six arrested, two are adults identified as Isaac Kissi Adjei, also known as Kofi Black, and Courage Teiko, alias Timmy.
Preliminary investigations indicate that one of the juveniles conspired with the others to stage the kidnapping in an attempt to extort money from his parents for a supposed trip abroad.
During the incident, the group demanded a ransom of Three Hundred and Forty Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH₵340,000.00) from the victim’s parents.
Subsequently, they managed to collect Twenty Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH₵20,000.00) of the total ransom.
While the identities of the juveniles have been withheld in accordance with best practices, their parents and guardians have been informed, and police investigations into the matter are ongoing.
An Accra Circuit Court has sentenced a driver, Godfred Ayittey, to eight years imprisonment with hard labor for attempting to kidnap a father and daughter for ransom.
Mr Ayittey had denied conspiring with Wang Liang in preparation for the kidnapping, but he was found guilty after trial. Wang Liang is currently at large.
The court heard that Ayittey recruited a witness, Richard Asomaning, over the phone for the kidnapping scheme. Asomaning feigned interest and forwarded copies of his driver’s license and Ghana card, as well as those of another recruit, Peter Ofoe Agbovie, to Ayittey.
The witnesses then requested a meeting with Ayittey to learn about their intended victims, Mr. Joseph K. Horgle and his daughter Elinam. Ayittey communicated with the witnesses only over the phone, and a WhatsApp group platform was created for the operation.
Ayittey provided funds to Asomaning to begin surveillance on the victims, and initial photographs of the company’s premises were taken and sent to Ayittey.
Agbovie was tasked with renting a vehicle, while Ayittey claimed he would procure guns for the operation. Ayittey was arrested on August 9, 2022, and admitted to the offense, implicating Wang Liang in engineering the kidnapping.
Investigations revealed that Ayittey had worked for the intended victim’s company and knew the former boss had the financial capacity to pay any ransom.
The court found Ayittey guilty of the offense, which involved a plot to kidnap the owner of J. K. Horgle Transport and Company Limited and his daughter for ransom.
Authorities have apprehended five individuals suspected of kidnapping a four-year-old girl in Fumso, located in the Ashanti Region.
The arrested individuals reportedly hail from Wassa Jappa in the Western Region and are alleged to have traveled to Akyem Oda in the Eastern Region.
According to reports, they are all allegedly involved in illegal mining.
The Assembly member for the Fumso Electoral Area, Adakora Albert, confirmed the incident and reported it to the Fumso police.
They were handed over to the Fumso police for further investigation. Concerned community members have also appealed to the police for a thorough investigation.
In a recent jailbreak in Guinea’s capital, Conakry, gunmen took former military ruler Moussa Dadis Camara and three others.
Authorities confirmed at least nine fatalities, including suspected attackers, security personnel, and civilians.
Camara and two co-accused individuals were later returned to jail, where they are facing trial for their alleged involvement in the deaths of over 150 protesters at Conakry stadium 14 years ago.
The circumstances surrounding the release or kidnapping of Camara and the others remain unclear.
The Nigerian police say they have freed 58 persons who had been kidnapped and held prisoner in Kogi state’s central region by criminal groups.
How long they had been detained remained unclear.
According to a police spokeswoman, the rescue in Udulu Forest was a cooperative effort by local volunteer defense organizations.
She claimed that one captive died during the operation while the abduction group fled with minor injuries.
Bola Tinubu, the incoming president who will take office later this month, will face a number of difficult security concerns, including kidnappings for ransom.
During Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure as president, they spread to numerous states and became typical.
The kidnapping of 80 persons last week in northern Nigeria has been denounced by Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
In Zamfara state, many of those taken hostage were women and teenagers who had been gathering firewood.
ECOWAS demanded the release of the kids in a statement.
It’s unclear who carried out the abductions. Armed criminal gangs frequently demand ransom while kidnapping people in Zamfara. This latest episode in a string of brutal crimes in Nigeria.
Armed gangs killed more than 70 people in two separate attacks in the central state of Benue last week.
On Friday, a camp for internally displaced people in the area of Mgban was targeted by gunmen and dozens killed.
And a week ago, a number of residents were shot in the remote village of Umogidi. Some were decapitated.
A search and rescue effort has been started by police in northwest Nigeria to find two female students who have been kidnapped from a university dorm in Zamfara state.
They said that an armed gang broke into the exclusive Gusau hostel and imprisoned two guards before robbing the students.
Fears of instability in Zamfara, which has previously experienced multiple kidnappings for ransom, have increased as a result of the occurrence.
Gunmen kidnapped around 300 female students from a boarding school in Zamfara in February of last year.
After being held captive for a few days, they were freed. Four staff members and fifteen students from an agriculture college were taken into custody on August 15.
Mexican and US officials, have indicated that two of the four Americans who were abducted in Mexico last week at gunpoint are dead, while the other two are still alive and have returned home.
Four US citizens were kidnapped by armed men on 3 March while driving into the city of Matamoros in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, across the border from Texas.
They had travelled there for cosmetic surgery, relatives told US media.
One man, named only as José “N”, 24, from Tamaulipas, has been arrested.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said: “We offer our deepest condolences to the friends and families of those who were killed in these attacks.”
The two surviving victims were delivered to the US on Tuesday in co-operation with the US consulate in Matamoros, Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios Mojica said in a tweet.
They were brought back under armed escort by a heavily armed convoy.
The FBI later confirmed that two Americans were found dead and that the other two have been brought to American hospitals for treatment.
“One of the surviving victims sustained serious injuries during the attack,” the FBI said.
The statement added that the agency will work with international partners and other law enforcement agencies to “hold those responsible for this horrific and violent attack accountable for their crimes”.
The bodies of Zindell Brown and Shaeed Woodard have been recovered and are being repatriated, US officials said.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said: “We are very sorry that this happened in our country and we send our condolences to the families of the victims, friends, and the United States government, and we will continue doing our work to guarantee peace and tranquillity.”
The injured Americans were named by family members as Latavia “Tay” McGee, a mother of six from South Carolina, and Eric James Williams.
The four were driving through Matamoros – a city of 500,000 located directly across the border from the Texas town of Brownsville – in a white minivan with North Carolina licence plates when unidentified gunmen opened fire, the FBI said this week.
Video shows them being loaded into a pickup truck by heavily armed men. One is manhandled on to the vehicle while others appear to be unconscious and are dragged to the truck.
A Mexican woman, believed to be a 33-year-old bystander more than one block away, was killed in last Friday’s incident.
At a news conference later on Tuesday, Mexican officials confirmed a 24-year-old man had been arrested and that the four Americans were discovered at a wooden shack outside Matamoros.
The victims had been transferred to various locations between the kidnapping on Friday and their discovery on Tuesday “to create confusion”, officials say.
Investigators think the Gulf Cartel, one of the oldest organised crime groups in Mexico, is responsible for the attack, a US law enforcement source told CBS.
It is still unclear whether the Americans were ambushed, mistaken for competing drug traffickers, or were caught in cross-fire between warring factions.
US state department officials said on Tuesday that the investigation was still in the early stages.
Ms McGee was said to be travelling to the Mexican border town to have a tummy tuck, a cosmetic surgery procedure to remove abdominal fat.
Her mother Barbara Burgess told ABC News that she had asked her daughter not to go, but her daughter had reassured her she would be safe.
The FBI offered a $50,000 (£42,000) reward for the return of the Americans.
Matamoros is in Tamaulipas state, one of six Mexican states that the US state department advises travellers not to visit because of “crime and kidnapping”.
Medical tourism is common, particularly among people living in US border states.
But Matamoros is one of the most dangerous cities in the country, as drug cartels control large swathes of the state of Tamaulipas and can hold more power than local law enforcement.
Image caption,State police kept watch at the scene where the bodies of two Americans were found
In Mali, two International Committee of the Red Cross employees have been abducted.
According to the organization, the kidnappings happened on a road connecting the northeastern cities of Gao and Kidal, which has long been a flashpoint for violence by Islamic groups.
Since 2012, Mali has been experiencing a security crisis, and kidnappings are prevalent. Reasons for the abductions include demands for ransom and acts of retaliation against government security operations.
A World Health Organization doctor was released from captivity in Mali last month, weeks after he had been taken from his automobile in the Ménaka district. Moreover, in May 2022, gunmen kidnapped three Italians and a citizen of Togo.
The violence has also spread into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, killing thousands and displacing more than two million people in the region.
Twin boys who were kidnapped earlier this week in Columbus, Ohio have been reunited and the suspect has been taken into custody.
CNN reports that the five-month-old babies had been taken on Monday, when their mother, Wilhelmina Thomass had left them inside her car while picking up a DoorDash order as a driver. Kyair Thomass was found first, on Tuesday and Kason Thomass was later found on Thursday.
“Kason Thomass was found alive & safe in Indianapolis near a Papa John’s pizza location. The five-month-old boy is in good health & being transported to a hospital to be checked out,” the police said in a statement via Twitter.
At around 2 p.m. on Thursday, police apprehended the suspect, 24-year-old Nalah Jackson, who allegedly stole Wilhelmina’s black 2010 Honda Accord while it was still running. When the mother came out, her car was no longer there. Kyair was later found near the Dayton International Airport at around 4:15 a.m.. Kason would be found two days later in the stolen vehicle wearing the same clothes from Monday.
Jackson has been hit with two felony counts of kidnapping. She will deal with federal charges too since she traveled across state lines.
Restaurant employees would later tell police that they witnessed a homeless woman leave the restaurant right after Wilhelmina walked in.
It doesn’t appear that there is any sort of link between Jackson and the Thomass family.
Gunmen in the northern Nigerianstate of Zamfara have abducted the entire family of a local state politician.
Residents say the kidnappers broke into the home of the lawmaker, Aminu Yusuf Ardo, in the town of Jangebe on Thursday night, seizing his wife and their four young children.
Mr Ardo, who is a representative in the Zamfara state house of assembly, was not at home at the time of the raid.
The attackers have also kidnapped at least eight other people – most of them the politician’s neighbours, according to residents.
A man whose father was among the hostages told the BBC they were in shock, adding that people were coming to sympathise with them.
He said the gunmen had not made any demands yet.
Zamfara state Information Commissioner Ibrahim Magaji Dosara has confirmed the attack but said they were still gathering details.
Jangebe is the town where gunmen abducted nearly 300 female students from a boarding school in February last year.
The schoolgirls were later released following negotiations with the kidnappers.
Zamfara is among several states in Nigeria where armed criminal gangs frequently carry out killings and kidnappings for ransom.
The Nigerian security forces have recently stepped up raids on the armed groups’ forest hideouts as the country prepares for elections due to take place in February.
Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations, DCI, says it has rescued an 8-yr-old boy who was kidnapped by his father on November 12 and used to demand for a ransom of Sh50,000 from his wife.
A distraught mother of the boy, Everline Nandera who filed a report at Embakasi police station said the incident occured after a domestic disagreement with the father identified as Nemwel Ondari.
“Nandera told detectives that she had left their home in Embakasi’s Tel Aviv area at the crack of dawn, headed for Muthurwa market.” A statement read
“But upon coming back at around 9:20am, she found her husband and son missing. A note had been left behind by the husband demanding for a ransom of Sh50,000, for the release of the boy.
“In the note, the man also warned his wife that he would kill the boy using a kitchen knife which he had carried, should she try any monkey business.
“Immediately the woman filled her report at Embakasi police station, detectives from the elite Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau (CRIB) based at DCI Nairobi area were assembled and a manhunt for the suspect was launched.
“The detectives assisted by their Embakasi counterparts traced the suspect and arrested him at the NMS Green Park matatu terminus off Haile Sellasie avenue, a few hours later.
“The detectives established that the couple had a heated argument last night and after Everline left early in the morning for Muthurwa to fend for her family, the man packed his clothes and a kitchen knife in two bags, before taking off with the innocent boy.
“The detectives pounced on the man at around 4pm, as he eagerly waited for the ransom to be deposited into his Mpesa account.
“Mother and child were reunited as the man was escorted to Embakasi police station, where he is cooling his heels awaiting arraignment.”
A Nigerian Signwriter who abducted a 14-year-old girl and defiled her has been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment by the Gender Based Violence Court at the Police Headquarters, Accra.
Efe James Edema, 19, charged with defilement and abduction, pleaded guilty.
The court presided over by Mrs Abena Amponsah Boansi convicted Edema on his own plea.
Prosecution led by Inspector Opoku Aniagyei narrated that the complainant was the father of the victim.
Inspector Aniagyei said the complainant resided at Ayikuma together with the victim and that the accused resided at Nungua.
The prosecution said last year Edema went to work at Ayikuma and befriended the complainant and the family.
It said, however, during September 10, this year, the accused, now convict, informed the complainant that his work had ended at Ayikuma, and that he would be returning to Nungua.
To the surprise of the complainant, the prosecution said the complainant in the evening of September 10, this year, realised that the victim was no where to be found after Edema had left.
It said the complainant went round in search of the victim but to no avail.
The prosecution said the complainant, therefore, reported the matter to the Police at Ayikuma on September 11, 2022.
It said the complainant then posted the pictures of the victim on the status of his phone and other social media platforms.
Afterwards, the prosecution said the complainant was informed by his brothers at Nungua that, they had seen a girl who resembled the victim in the company of Edema.
The prosecution told the court that the complainant asked his brothers to snap pictures of the accused and the victim and send same to him (the complainant).
When the pictures of the victim and Edema were sent to the complainant, he identified the victim.
The prosecution said the complainant went to the Nungua Police Station with an Extract of Occurrence from Ayikuma Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit for assistance.
It said Edema was nabbed by the Police and the complainant was issued with a medical report to send the victim to the hospital for examination.
A full medical report on the victim was submitted to the Police.
Gunmen have carried out a deadly attack on a hospital in central Nigeria, abducting a number of staff, as well as patients and relatives.
The governor of Niger state, Sani Bello, condemned the raid on Gulu general hospital in the Lapai area as callous and inhuman.
There’s no official word on the number of people involved in the attack staged in the early hours of Tuesday, but a resident told the BBC that three people had died and about 20 had been kidnapped.
Niger is one of the states badly affected by a sustained wave of abductions and killings by armed gangs.
Police in Nigeria have paraded four suspected kidnappers, including a “notorious” one called John Lyon, who we reported about earlier.
A spokesperson for the police told the BBC that Mr Lyon was tracked down after three alleged members of the same gang gave information about his whereabouts.
He was then traced to a central district of the capital Abuja where he was said to be living ”lavishly”.
Officers then transferred him to the southern state of Bayelsa where he allegedly committed the crimes.
The authorities said at least 10 kidnappings had been traced to the gang.
Police say the suspects usually targeted ”high-profile” individuals so that they could get ”huge ransoms”.
In one incident, they allegedly collected a ransom of 60m naira ($140,000; £130,000) from their victim – a senior bank executive.
In another kidnapping, they allegedly extorted more than $150,000.
The authorities say the suspects usually hid their weapons by a riverside outside the state capital – and picked them up whenever they planned a kidnapping.
Police say they hope the arrest of “the most notorious kidnapping gang in Bayelsa” will help bring peace to the area.
But more members of the gang remain at large. None of those arrested has commented.
A California woman has been sentenced to prison in connection with faking her own kidnapping to be with an ex-boyfriend.
39-year-old Sherri Papini, who in April agreed to a plea deal in the case, was sentenced on Monday to 18 months in prison followed by a 36-month period of supervised release. Papini must also pay more than $300,000 in restitution, a figure estimated to include funds she received after lying to the California Victim Compensation Board and the Social Security Administration about having PTSD from the made-up kidnapping.
Papini was first charged with 34 counts of mail fraud and a single count of making false statements. In April, she pleaded guilty as part of her aforementioned deal to one count each of mail fraud and making false statements.
In late 2016, Papini was reported missing, prompting a number of searches both in California and elsewhere. Less than a month later, Papini resurfaced with a later-proven-to-be-false claim of having been kidnapped “by two Hispanic women at gunpoint.” Papini, a mother of two, also showed injuries she said were from abuse at the hands of these nonexistent individuals. These false claims were repeated on numerous occasions, including as recently as March 2021.
In an indictment filed in April, prosecutors said Papini had started communicating with the ex-boyfriend in late 2015 and did so using her work phone and burners. During the 22-day period in which she falsely said she was being held against her will, she was actually staying with the ex, who had picked her up in a rental car and taken her to his residence in the Costa Mesa area.
The Central Regional Police Command has arrested some 9 suspects following the kidnapping of one Salmane Tchaboutchou. The suspects who were arrested at Abura in the Central region are Burkina Faso nationals, Citinewsroom reports.
The arrest came on the back of a complaint by the chief of the Zombrama Community in the Central Region who doubles as a resident of Abura, Osman Dawda that Salmane Tchaboutchou had been kidnapped by some unknown persons at Pedu in Cape Coast.
The police arrested nine suspects when they tracked and located the area. Sixteen cell phones, one HP laptop and seven exercise books were recovered after a search was conducted in their room.
Central Regional Police Commander, DCOP Kwadwo Antwi Tabi noted that investigations revealed suspects lured the victims from neighbouring countries by promising them lucrative jobs in the mining sector.
“As part of the employment requirement, victims are to carry some amount of money on them to Ghana. On their arrival, the suspects take the said money from them and kidnap them. They are then made to call relatives to pay a ransom,†DCOP Antwi is quoted to have said.
The Central Regional Police Command has arrested some 9 suspects following the kidnapping of one Salmane Tchaboutchou. The suspects who were arrested at Abura in the Central region are Burkina Faso nationals, Citinewsroom reports.
The arrest came on the back of a complaint by the chief of the Zombrama Community in the Central Region who doubles as a resident of Abura, Osman Dawda that Salmane Tchaboutchou had been kidnapped by some unknown persons at Pedu in Cape Coast.
The police arrested nine suspects when they tracked and located the area. Sixteen cell phones, one HP laptop and seven exercise books were recovered after a search was conducted in their room.
Central Regional Police Commander, DCOP Kwadwo Antwi Tabi noted that investigations revealed suspects lured the victims from neighbouring countries by promising them lucrative jobs in the mining sector.
“As part of the employment requirement, victims are to carry some amount of money on them to Ghana. On their arrival, the suspects take the said money from them and kidnap them. They are then made to call relatives to pay a ransom,†DCOP Antwi is quoted to have said.
The suspects are currently being investigated for human trafficking, abetment of kidnapping, kidnapping, unlawful entry into Ghana and living in the country without requisite documents. He however cautioned foreigners who come to the country to perpetrate crimes that they are not going to be spared when caught.
The Ashanti Regional Police Command has arrested seven suspects for allegedly kidnapping the Chief of Dedesua Traditional Area Nana Owusu Sefa Brempong II.
The Police in its statement said on Monday, it received information that the Chief of the Dedesua Traditional Area had been kidnapped to an unknown destination.
The Konongo Police were deployed to act on the information and their swift intervention saved Nana Owusu Sefa Brempong II who had been held in an unregistered Honda Civic with a Toyota Matrix accompanying.
The suspects include Kwame Boafo, Kwabena Ofori, Theophilus Larbi, Yakubu Adams, Musa Adanda, Edward Kwadwo and Benjamin Gbli.
When rescued, there were injuries on some parts of his body and was therefore issued with a hospital form to seek medical attention whiles suspects are in custody to assist the police with the investigation.
Armed men on motorbikes have kidnapped an American citizen from his home in southern Niger, according to security sources.
The incident happened in the early hours of Tuesday, in the rural village of Massalata in the department of Birni Nkonni, which sits on the Nigerian border.
The American man, named by his father as Philip Walton had been living there with his wife and child for two years.
“During the night six men, possibly Fulani, came on foot. They kidnapped my son Philip Walton. They were looking for money in the house but there was not enough. had only 20,000 CFA francs (30 euros). Following that, they left with him, ” said his father, Bruce Walton, who lives in Birni Nkonni and has lived in Niger for almost 30 years.
He said the kidnappers were possibly Fulani and spoke Hausa.
Niger, like much of the Sahel, is plagued by recurrent jihadist attacks that have killed hundreds, despite help from French and US forces there.
Mali and neighboring Burkina Faso, it is at the heart of a huge area scoured by jihadist groups claiming to be ISIS or its rival Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
Niger is also facing attacks from the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram on its south-eastern borders.
Westerners are also subject to frequent kidnappings by jihadist groups.
But several westerners are still being held hostage in the Sahel. Among them, the American humanitarian Jeffery Woodke was kidnapped in Niger in October 2016 in Abalak, about 200 km north of Birni Nkonni.
On October 12, 2020, it was reported that a 14-year-old teenager was allegedly kidnapped by some unidentified men in Area 52 in Ho on Friday.
The victim, (name withheld) narrated that he was kidnapped when he stepped out of his house to pass urine.
He claimed that when he was taken to an unknown location, because he was blindfolded, he only heard a voice rejecting his gender.
According to him, it was for this reason he was abandoned in a sack around a popular pub called Mirage in Ho.
However, this story turned out to be false.
According to the police, the 14-year-old cooked up the story to avoid punishment from his parents for staying out long to play.
Ho Municipal Police Commander, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Alexander Yeboah, said the boy confessed to the police that he connived with his friend to avoid punishment at home after he left home at about 9:30 am and returned after 4:30 pm.
According to the GNA report, the police said the victims in the matter were juveniles thus the Police would review a corresponding punishment for such incidents.
Unidentified men who kidnapped a teenager on Friday around Area 52 in Ho made a U-turn by returning their ‘catch’ only when a voice rejected the boy’s offer for a girl’s preference.
The victim, (name withheld) narrated to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) from his hospital bed that some unidentified kidnappers took him, hostage, outside their gated house, when he stepped out to pass urine.
He said what he could remember was a hand blindfolding him and could later hear a voice rejecting his gender, in an unknown environment, all this time still in the sack with hands and face tied with ropes.
According to Mr Selorm Awadi, the father of the 14-year-old kidnapped teenager (name withheld) said his son was picked by the men, who managed to conceal the victim in a white sack and was abandoned at the vicinity of the area, where he was earlier kidnapped. He told the GNA that his son ran an errand to buy bread for the household before 0900 hours, and could no longer be located at home afterwards.
He said the whereabouts of his son could not be ascertained until word went round that a boy was abandoned in a sack around the popular Mirage pub area in Ho.
Mr Awadi said he thought that development or incident was far away from him and was never worried until the reality beaconed.
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, after confirming the incident to the GNA.
The dumbfounded MCE appealed to parents and guardians to be vigilant over their children especially teenagers as the nation positioned itself for another election in December. 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.
An 18-year-old final year student of Eguafo Senior High school (SHS) in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) Municipality of the Central Region is in the grips of the police for kidnapping.
The police are also on a manhunt for two other accomplices who are currently on the run.
The student, whose name was given as Daniel Wallace together with his accomplices, kidnapped two children aged five and six years respectively at Komenda on Thursday, June 4, 2020, and demanded an amount of GH? 8,000 from their parents.
Narrating the incident to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mr Paul Arkorful, assembly member for Kisi Electoral Area said one of the kidnapped children was a nephew of Daniel.
He said on Thursday, June 4, he received a distress call from the police about the kidnapping of two children at Komenda.
According to him, the police implored the community leaders to make announcements at their information centres and also help apprehend the perpetrators.
Mr Arkorful said with the help of the Queen Mother of Kissi, Nana Efua Badu II, the police CID and the community leaders, Daniel was arrested but he refused to mention the names of his two accomplices.
On how Daniel was apprehended, he said a policewoman posed as the mother of one of the kidnapped children and bargained for the amount to be reduced on phone.
According to him, she bargained with the kidnappers until the amount was reduced to GH? 500 and the kidnappers provided a mobile money number for the money to be paid into.
He said the police contacted MTN for that number to be blocked after the money had been paid and subsequently traced the owner of the number to Kissi where Daniel was arrested on Sunday, June 6.
The assembly member expressed worry about the increasing level of crimes in the community and called for police patrols in the area.
The Central Region Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Irene Oppong confirmed the arrest of the suspect, saying further investigations were on-going.
The Elmina Magistrate Court has remanded Daniel Wallace, an 18-year-old high school student, into police custody over claims he kidnapped two children.
Reports indicate that the suspect allegedly kidnapped the six-year-old kids on May 6, 2020, at Ametoe a suburb of Komenda.
The suspect is said to have demanded a GHS6,000 ransom.
The Public Relations Officer of the Central Regional Police Command, DSP Irene Oppong said “On June 6, 2020, the Komenda Police station received a complaint from one Paa Ekow Eduam that his child and a friend both six years were playing within the area and later went to visit their grandfather but have not heard from them again. Later a strange number called him demanding for a ransom of GHS 6,000 before releasing the children.â€
“On that same day, the Komenda District Police with support from the Regional Police Command and community members managed to rescue the children,†DSP Irene Oppong said.
She indicated further that, “Investigations have begun in the case and the suspect will reappear in court again on June 25, 2020â€.
Six people are in the grips of the Yendi police for allegedly kidnapping a man in Zabzugu in the Northern Region.
The six include a TV station owner and three military officers.
According to the Yendi police, they received information that a young man had been kidnapped into an unregistered Toyota V8 vehicle heading towards Yendi.
The police subsequently intercepted the vehicle and captured all of its six occupants including the victim and the vehicle driver whose name was given as Nana Yaw Owusu.
The main suspect, 45-year-old Musah Mohammed, who owns Konkonsa TV and AB TV in Accra is alleged to have contracted the military officers to kidnap the victim.
Musah Mohammed, who is said to be a spiritualist and a herbal doctor is said to have kidnapped the victim, Sani Ibrahim, 32 because the victim allegedly used his pictures to defraud someone of GHS 20,000.
Police say Musah Mohammed contacted a military friend, who also invited two of his colleagues, all of Airforce Base in Tamale and proceeded to Zabzugu upon hearing that the supposed impostor was hiding there.
After the arrest of the suspect, some youth in Yendi organized themselves and confronted the Police in an attempt to free the main suspect.
They burnt car tyres amidst pelting of stones.
The military had to intervene to maintain order in the area.
The suspects according to the police will be transferred to Tamale for further investigations.
The Northern Regional Police have found Jennifer Selome who was allegedly kidnapped about a week ago in Tamale, the Northern regional capital.
According to the police, Jennifer was spotted in Tongo in the Upper East region by someone they referred to as a Good Samaritan wandering and looking traumatised.
The police said the Good Samaritan sent her to the Tongo police station and the police in Tongo subsequently relayed the message to Tamale.
A statement signed by the Northern regional crime officer Superintendent Otuo Acheampong said Jennifer narrated to the police that she boarded a tricycle but was allegedly sprayed with a substance, gagged and blindfolded.
She said she was taken to an unknown location after being transported in six different vehicles.
