A 38-year-old farmer from Ayisakro, a community near Axim in the Nzema East Municipality of the Western Region, was sentenced to ten years in prison for attempting to sacrifice his son in a money ritual.
Kwabena Ebo was charged for trading of person contrary to sections 2(1) & (2) of the Human Trafficking Act 694 of 2001. The accused pleaded guilty to the crime and requested leniency from the judge.
Her Lordship Abigail Anima Asare, reading the sentence at Takoradi Circuit Court B, emphasized that the accused was convicted of the allegations preferred against him and, as such, deserved a harsher punishment to act as a deterrence to others.
Read Also: Blac Chyna loses case against Kardashian-Jenners
The prosecution, Robert Inspector Yawson, informed the court that the accused offered to sell his 16-year-old biological son (name withheld) to one Francis Odasani, also known as Nana Tano Kwaw, a well-known fetish priest in the area, for GH¢500,000 on Thursday, March 3.
After the sentence, the fetish priest told Nhyiraba Paa Kwesi Simpson, the host of the Omanbapa morning show on Connect FM, that he was delighted with the court’s penalty.
“I think it is a good punishment. I saw how remorseful the accused was in the courtroom but nothing could have saved him at that particular moment. He will learn his lessons next time,” he indicated.
Facts of the case
The accused approached the fetish priest and asked him to use his son in rituals in order for him to obtain money.
The fetish priest declined, but the accused returned the next day about 1:00 pm, pleading with him to buy his son for GH500,000.
Seeing how desperate and determined the accused was, the spiritualist pretended to be interested and promised to find him buyers so he could go and bring the son.
The fetish priest alerted the Axim Police Command, and the accused was detained after bargaining with the plain-clothed cops and taking an envelope containing the cash at the fetish priest’s residence, where they had all met.
The accused’s son is the eldest of three children he had with his former late wife.
Since then, the son and his two siblings have been living with their grandmother in Akyerso, a village near Akim Oda in the Eastern Region.
Due to financial constraints, the son has dropped out of school.
As a result, the accused took advantage of this and, knowing his plan, obtained permission from of the grandmother to bring down the son to Ayesakro to complete his mission.
The son was later returned to his grandmother in the Eastern Region.
SOURCE: 3NEWS
