Kumasi, Feb 14, GNA - A Kumasi Circuit Court on Tuesday sentenced Francis Boateng, a 20-year-old student of Asanteman Secondary School, to five years imprisonment in hard labour for kidnapping the five-year-old son of a relative.

He pleaded guilty to the charge.

Police Chief Inspector Francis Kusi told the court that on February 6, Boateng kidnapped the boy from the Pentecost Preparatory School at Amakom in Kumasi.

He took him to a hideout at Ayeduase near the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and kept him for six hours. Boateng called Mr Daniel Oppong, the father of the boy, and demanded 15 million cedis before releasing the boy but the father immediately reported the incident to the police.

The police later traced the boy to a bush at Ayeduase and he mentioned Boateng as the person who kidnapped him. Chief Inspector Kusi said the convict was later arrested from his hideout.

He admitted the offence with the explanation that his action was due to the neglect shown towards him by his adopted parents.