The Ashanti Regional Police Command has charged two officers at the Department of Social Welfare with conspiracy to commit crime and child stealing.
The two officers, Samuel Obeng Afriyie, 58, and Jemima Alangea, 41, were arrested by the Anti-human Trafficking Unit for allegedly stealing a one-day old baby from her biological mother at a maternity home in Kumasi.
Speaking to 3news.com, Ashanti Region Police PRO DSP Juliana Obeng said the complainant (name withheld) sought assistance from the two suspects when she was nine months pregnant.
She wanted the Social Welfare Department to provide her with support to access a place to deliver and stay since she had been neglected by her boyfriend.
The suspects offered to help her and asked the complainant to call them when she was in labour.
The complainant did call on the two social workers when she was due for delivery and they came to her rescue only to inform her after delivery that her baby girl had died without showing her the body.
But police investigations revealed that the complainant was delivered of a baby girl in a private hospital on January 11, 2018.
The baby was handed over to the two Social Welfare officers by the midwife, Madam Grace Osei Afriyie.
Few minutes later, one of the officers, whose name was given as Evelyn, approached the complainant in the labour ward and informed her that her baby had some rashes around the neck and has been taken to a different hospital for treatment.
The officer then sent the child to the Kumasi Children’s Home and admitted her without the knowledge of the mother.
Evelyn later returned to the labour ward to inform the complainant that the baby girl had passed on.
Further investigations revealed the suspects had charged a couple who had applied for adoption an amount of GHS16, 500, and gave the baby to the couple who had no idea the baby was stolen.
The complainant reported the matter to the police after unsuccessful attempts to access the body of her baby dead or alive.
The police arrested the two suspects after its preliminary investigations on April 6, 2018.
According to DSP Juliana Obeng, the suspects confessed to their crime and have been charged with child stealing and conspiracy to commit crime, and have been processed for court.
By Ibrahim Abubakar|3news.com|Ghana