Police arrest suspected child trafficker
The police have arrested a 35-year-old woman suspected to be behind a number of child trafficking cases in Accra.
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The suspect, Rebecca Martey, was arrested yesterday at Adabraka, an Accra suburb, when she attempted to traffic two boys, aged 12, to Ativikope, a fishing community in the Volta Region.
Martey also had with her a set of twins, aged about six months, at the time of her arrest.
The police could not immediately establish the woman’s claim that she was the mother of the twins.
Hawking
According to the police, the boys were engaged in street hawking and cleaning of windscreens of vehicles locked up in traffic when the suspect spotted them at about 8 a.m on Wednesday at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra.
Martey was said to have convinced the two boys to follow her to Ativikope where she claimed they would be engaged in a GH¢20 a day job.
She has been handed over to the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department of the police for further investigations.
Police report
Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Accra Regional Police Command, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mrs Afia Tenge, said the suspect, after her arrest, confessed to engaging in child trafficking.
She said Martey was picked up at the Adabraka market after some traders spotted her with the two boys and the twins and alerted the police.
Before her arrest, the traders claimed they spotted the suspect earlier this year in the market with two other children, one of whom had since gone missing.
“So immediately they saw her today with the twins and two boys, they quickly alerted the police,” Mrs Tenge said.
Preliminary investigation
The PRO said the suspect confessed that she was transporting the two boys to engage in a fishing business at Ativikope.
Mrs Tenge said the suspect, who claimed to be a native of La in Accra, also admitted to being behind some child trafficking cases in the region.
She claimed to have sent the first batch of her victims to the Volta Region to engage in fishing activities.