A twenty-eight-year-old unemployed man, Emmanuel Nebapo, is in the grips of the Sunyani Police for allegedly attempting to sell his four-year-old son to a Sunyani-based popular contractor for GH¢9,000 apparently for a ritual purposes.

The suspect was arrested by the police last Friday night, December 7, after he had gone to the house of the complainant, Evans Peprah Tabiri, a popular contractor in Sunyani, to offer his son for sale.

The suspect admitted to the offence and told the police that he took the action because he was in dire need of money to take care of the rest of his three children.

The ‘sacrificial lamb’ is in the custody of the police.

ASP Wiredu, Sunyani District Crime Officer, confirming the incident to DAILY GUIDE, said the complainant, who stayed at the Airport Residential area in Sunyani, informed the police on December 3, 2012 that he was in his house trimming flowers when the suspect, who claimed to have come from Chiraa, near Sunyani, approached him.

He said the suspect told the complainant that he wanted a job, but the latter informed him that he had no job to offer him.

According to him, the suspect then told the complainant that he had a serious matter to discuss with him.

ASP Wiredu said this made the complainant curious about what the suspect wanted from him. When the complainant probed further, the suspect disclosed to him that he had a four-year-old male child named David Nebapo and that he wanted to sell the child to him.

The complainant, who told the suspect that he was not into that business, quickly informed the police about the suspect’s intention.

The crime officer said the police directed the complainant to feign interest in the offer in order to save the boy; the complainant and suspect therefore settled on GH¢9,000 as the price for the boy.

After settling on the agreed price, the complainant asked the suspect to come back on December 7 with the child around 8:00pm for the money.

The police then laid ambush close to the complainant’s house on the said day, and when the suspect popped up with the ‘sacrificial lamb’ at 7:30pm, the police rushed into the house and arrested the suspect and rescued the child.

ASP Wiredu told the paper that upon interrogation, the suspect admitted to the offence and said he had no money to take care of his four children and therefore decided to sell one to get more money to take care of the rest.