Regional News of Friday, 3 January 2014

Source: GNA

Police commander refutes kidnap story

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Augustine Gyennin, Ashanti Regional Commander, has debunked recent media reports that a 17-year-old female student was kidnapped in Kumasi before the yuletide.

He said police preliminary investigations had revealed that the girl was with her boyfriend in one of the Kumasi suburbs contrary to reports that she had been kidnapped.

DCOP Gyennin said the police found it rather curious, the girl’s claim of having been abducted to an unknown destination with the kidnappers demanding a ransom of Ghc3,000.00 before her release.

He said the police gathered that, as part of a grand scheme to gain some freedom from her parents to visit her boyfriend, the girl played a trick on them.

He said the girl refused to go home when her school (name withheld) vacated for the Christmas holidays and when her anxious parents called to find out her whereabouts, she reportedly lied to them to outwit them.

DCOP Gyennin said she had been giving contradictory information during interrogations whilst also refusing to take the police to where she was allegedly sent to by her kidnappers.

He said after investigations, the teenager risked being charged with deceiving public officer.