The Central Regional police are making efforts to trace the parents of the 13 children who were allegedly being abducted to the Gambia by one Madam Ekua Seguah, a fishmonger from Gomoa Immuna in the Mfantsiman district, the acting regional crime officer, ASP Michael Tattah, disclosed to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Cape Coast on Friday.

The children, eight boys and five girls, aged between seven and 14 years, and who do not attend school, and Madam Seguah were brought to Cape Coast from Accra on Thursday night, by officials of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) and handed over to the police.

The arrival of the children, who are being kept at the central police station, has attracted a throng of people to the station. Meanwhile, Madam Seguah is helping the police in their investigations.

Immigration officials arrested Madam Seguah at the border at Paga on Sunday April 8, with the children and four other adults who were also travelling to the Gambia.

Speaking to the (GNA) at the regional police headquarters, Madam Seguah, however, denied that the children were being abducted.

She claimed that, they are her wards and the other adult travellers, who are from Gomoa Immuna, and that they were being taken to the Gambia, to assist in the preparation of 'kako', a popular salted fish.

According to her, three of them, aged 7, 10 and 14 years, are her children. Madam Seguah, who is resident in the Gambia, said when the immigration officials confronted her and her colleagues, they only told them that the children were too many, and she therefore volunteered to send them back.

She said the officials therefore took money from her and assisted her in procuring bus tickets for their journey back home, while the others continued the journey to the Gambia.