Anti-human trafficking police in Kumasi have held two social workers – Samuel Obeng Afriyie and Evelyn Jemima Alangea – for questioning over allegation of faking the death of a day-old baby and selling her for GH¢16,500.
Investigators are looking into how the civil servants used their positions of trust to dupe a young woman from Lawra in the Upper East Region in order to make money.
Samuel Obeng Afriyie, a justice administration officer and his female colleague, Evelyn Jemima Alangea, a probation officer at the Department of Social Welfare in the Ashanti Regional capital, were said to be helping the baby’s mother following an assistance she sought from the department last year.
DSP Juliana Obeng, Public Relations Officer of the Ashanti Regional Police Command, said that was after the woman’s boyfriend had abandoned her during the pregnancy.
According to the police spokesperson, the suspects allegedly took the new-born baby – right after being delivered – from a private maternity home where the woman gave birth, and sent her to hospital under the pretext of treating rashes on her body and later returned with the news of her death.
DSP Juliana Obeng indicated that police investigation established that the two workers sent the baby girl to a children’s home in Kumasi, from where she was later sold to a married couple for GH¢16,500.
The police stated that even though the suspects did show proof of the dead baby, they allegedly managed to convince the mother to live with Evelyn for two months at her residence at Tewobabi, Kenyasi in the Kwabre East Municipality as part of the scheme.
The police spokesperson said that the incident, which occurred on February 3, this year, was reported to the police when the mother became suspicious of the social workers’ act.
DSP Obeng said Samuel Obeng Afriyie and Evelyn Jemima Alangea were arrested on April 6 and had since been granted police enquiry bail while investigation continues.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi