An 18-year-old father on Monday, November 22, is alleged to have strangled his one-and-a-half-year-old, daughter, Ruth Adome, to death at Lowcost, a suburb of Dzodze in the Volta Region, in the middle of the night when she lay by her 19-year-old mother.

The teenage father, Dennis Dzagba, a student of the Keta Business College (KETABUSCO), is said to have killed the baby because he said his mates at school had being teasing him that at his age, he had a child.

He is also alleged to have said that his mother continuously heaped insults on him that he was fathering a child at his age, hence she had divided her responsibilities between him and the daughter since he was in school and should not take care of the baby.

He was arrested after the act and arraigned before the Dzodze Magistrate Court presided over by Anthony Abebrese yesterday.

Relating the facts of the case to the court, DSP Akwasi Asafo Agyei said the suspect and complainant, mother of the deceased, are cousins staying in the same home but got into an amorous relationship leading to the pregnancy of the mother who later conceived a baby girl.

The prosecutor said on November 19, the suspect, who was in the boarding house at his school, came home and slept in a different room from where the baby and her mother slept.

On November 22, however, the suspect sneaked into the room of the baby and her mother and took advantage of the baby's mum's deep sleep and strangled the baby to death to end the teasing from his friends and the continuous insults from his mother.

The next day, the police boss said it was detected that some fluid was coming from the baby's nostrils and so she was rushed to the St. Anthony hospital at Dzodze where she was pronounced dead, with the suspect allegedly confessing to some elders in the house that he killed the baby because of the stigma his mates attached to him as a teenage father.

DSP Asafo Agyei said the suspect also confessed to the police that he killed the baby.

The suspect, on his appearance at the court on Tuesday, however denied the facts presented by the police, saying that he was beaten up by some residents and forced to confess to an act he did not commit. He also denied confessing to the police.

He also said he was 17 years and not 18 as presented by the prosecutor but when the judge asked him for his date of birth, he mentioned July 17, 1992 which vindicated the police that he was 18 years old.

Remanding him into police custody to re-appear on December 20, 2010, the magistrate, Anthony Abebrese, was worried about the increasing spate of teenage pregnancy in the area and appealed to parents and other stakeholders to come on board to fight the menace.

Mr. Abebrese noted that it had become a normal thing in recent times to see teenage boys and girls in various corners fondling themselves. "At times when you are not lucky, you even see them doing the 'thing' like dogs outside."

According to him, several cases of teenage fathers denying the paternity of their babies were brought to his court.

He advised the mother of the deceased baby to meditate and start life afresh since the baby was no more, instead of rushing into another relationship that would put her future at risk.