A joint effort by the Commissioner of Police (COP) Mrs Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah led Economic and Organised Crime (EOCO) and Tema Community 2 base Plan-B FM, has resulted in a 3-month-old-baby being returned to his parents after he was taken away from the mother in a ina deceitful manner few days after he was delivered at the Tema General Hospital.
The baby was taken away from his mother, one Georgina Otchere, a resident of Tema Newtown, by an employee of Department of Social Welfare (name withheld) few days after he was delivered at the Tema General Hospital under the guise that the baby would be sent abroad for a better life and a secured adult life compared to what she the mother and the father of the baby would have offered.
Soon after being informed of the challenges of the baby’s parents were encountering in their quest to retrieve their baby from the Department of Social Welfare employee who is stationed at the Tema General Hospital, Plan-B FM contacted the Social Welfare employee on Saturday. She declined to comment on the matter with the excuse that it was weekend and added that the radio station had contacted her on her private line hence he refusal to confirm or deny custody of the baby.
The office of (COP) Mrs Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, Executive Director-EOCO was contacted over the alleged refusal to hand over the three-month-old baby to his parents. A team from the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit was immediately dispatched to look into the matter and if found to be true, retrieve the baby.
COP Mrs Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah must be commended for her effort in ensuring that the baby was returned the parents. Her sustained interest throughout the matter is something that needs commendation. She did not behave like some of the heads of state institutions who delegate assignments and stay away until the matter was resolved. She occasionally called Plan-B FM to enquire if there was any support the station needed with its investigation into the matter and actually met with Georgina and her family together with the retrieved baby after the Department of Social Welfare subsequently released the baby.
The baby which has not been seen since last year December, despite frantic effort on the part of both families of Georgina and her boyfriend, Mohammed, was finally handed over to them in the presence of a team from EOCO and Plan-B FM at the head office of the Greater Department of Social Welfare. The lady at the centre of this matter however denies that she did not take away the baby with the intent of selling him to persons interested in having a baby; something Georgina thinks otherwise.
The looks on the faces of Georgina, Mohammed and those of their relations who were present when the baby was handed to them could best be described as those of joy with each member taking turn to carry the baby.
In an earlier narration prior to her baby being returned to her and how difficult it had become for she and her family to get the baby back, Georgina noted that when she was pregnant her friend visited her and informed her that she the friend knew a Department of Social Welfare employee who could help her take care of her baby after delivery. She added that the said friend occasionally visited her and would always come with some provisions meant for her. “Every time my friend visit she will bring along some provisions from a lady she claimed work for Department of Social Welfare. Any time I ask why the said lady was being nice to me when she has never set eyes on me, my friend will always say that it was because the lady was generous and would take care of my baby for me,” Georgina remarked.
According to Georgina she did not suspect anything from the onset until her friend alleged that she herself had earlier sold her baby to the same Department of Social Welfare employee for an amount of GH¢10,000 and encouraged she Georgina to do same.
“At the initial stage I fell for that idea because back at home my mother was complaining about the fact that she could not be supportive after helping me take care of my older child from a previous failed relationship. The lady (name withheld) apart from promising to take care of my baby, assured me that I could get him anytime I wanted him back,” Georgina stated and added that few days after delivery she handed the baby to the lady and left the General Hospital for home.
She continued that when she got home she could not muster courage to tell her boyfriend and his family what she had done but rather told them that the baby died shortly after delivery. She told Plan-B FM that Mohammed and his family somehow did not believe her story and reported her to the Tema Regional DOVVSU unit who after interrogation got know that the baby was alive and in the custody of the said Social Welfare lady.
Every effort by the aforementioned DOVVSU unit proved futile with various excuses assigned for the inability of the Social Welfare lady to produce the baby anytime a demand for him was made until EOCO and Plan-B FM intervened.
Georgina, Mohammed and their relations could not hide their joy when they received the baby and were quick to dispute an amount of over GH¢18,000 as money allegedly spent to take care of the baby during the last 3 months, two weeks by the said lady. The said amount according to the Social Welfare lady was used to take care of medical bills, baby toiletries, feeding and clothing for the baby.
According to them they did not in the first place ask her to send the baby away and added that her behavior after the taking custody of the baby depicted someone who had ill motives and further added that they believed she sold the baby to an interested person and was only demanding for the said amount of money out of disappointment when she and boyfriend demanded for their baby.
More to follow…
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