The Deputy Director of the Public Affairs Department of the Ghana Police Service, DSP Freeman Tettey, has stated that children do not just get missing but always end up somewhere finally.
He said sometimes when missing children are not found their body parts are used for ritual and medical purposes.
He explained that when a child is missing, so many things could happen to him/her pointing out that the child could be trafficked, which is regarded as the third most lucrative trade in the world, and sold into prostitution either in or outside the country.
Speaking in an interview with the Junior Graphic, DSP Tettey advised all children on the need to be cautious of any stranger they come into contact with so that they do not become victims of kidnapping.
He said both parents and children themselves need to be conscious of their security and be alert always, so that children are not abused.
DSP Tettey advised parents to have a proper chain of custody for their children so that they could be monitored wherever they are, whether in school or at home.
He told children to walk in groups when they close from school, church or attend any social gathering and desist from asking for rides from strangers or picking taxis all by themselves from the roadside.
Instead, he said, children and all other young people who need to board a taxi for whatever reason should go to the stations to do so to secure their safety.
He said whenever they sensed danger, they should raise an alarm and run as fast as they can or call the police emergency numbers 1855 for MTN and Vodafone subscribers and 191 for other networks.
DSP Tettey asked children to commit their parents names, where they reside and their telephone numbers to memory so that they could call them in times of trouble.
He urged parents not to leave their children, especially the young ones, by the roadside when they send them to school and make sure that they send them to their respective classrooms always.
“Children who go out of the house to play should be monitored constantly,” he added.
On the security situation in schools, DSP Tettey encouraged authorities of well-endowed schools to have a biometric system of registration so that every child is accounted for, while schools that are less endowed should ensure that the manual system worked very well.
He said anytime a child was not in school, teachers should call and find out from parents if the child was on his or her way to school or was actually absent from school that day.
DSP Tettey assured both parents and children that the police were ever ready to assist them with any problem concerning their security, so they should not hesitate to contact them when the need arose.
