Kidnapped girl kept in two hotels - Police

Page 55: June 26, 2008.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Dansoman police today confirmed the eight year-old pupil of Alpha Beta School, who was kidnapped on June 16, 2008, was kept in two different hotels before she was released on June 19, 2008.
The pupil’s school bag was also found at the residence of the principal suspect of the kidnapping, where it was concealed in another bag.
Two suspects, Philip Asiedu, the principal suspect and another person identified only as Miller, are currently in custody assisting the Dansoman police in investigations.
Three more suspects, including a woman, are being sought after by the police.
The suspects were alleged to have gone to the pupil’s school in a taxi to pick up the girl as if they were her parents and drove off.
Soon after the kidnappers had left the school, the mother of the pupil went to the school to pick her, only to be told that some people had already taken her home.
The Dansoman District Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Alex Yartey Tawiah, who confirmed these to newsmen today, said the ransom money paid for the girl’s release was GH¢12,000.
He said the principal suspect was arrested through the hard work of the police and other security agencies backed by intelligence.
He said when the Asiedu was arrested at his house at Mandela, a suburb of Weija, he broke down in tears and confessed to the crime after the pupil’s school bag had been found in his room.
Chief Supt. Yartey-Tawiah said investigations led the team of investigators to the Kinshasha Hotel at Weija where some workers admitted that Asiedu, using pseudoname, Zamba-Lana Birila, checked in the girl as his relative.
He explained that Asiedu’s house was just a distance away from the hotel and visited the hotel frequently while the girl was in there, during which he bought bread and other items for her.
The commander said it was established that two days later, the suspect took the girl to the Riverway Hotel at Hansonic where he dressed her in an Islamic gear with her face virtually covered.
Chief Supt. Yartey-Tawiah said the workers at the hotel also confirmed to the investigative team that Asiedu had brought the girl there on June 18, 2008.
According to him, Asiedu, who the police described as a cyber crime expert, then took the pupil to the gate of her school on June 19, 2008 between 7:30am and 8am in a taxi after it had been communicated to him that the parents had deposited the ransom money at spot around Sakaman in Accra.
He explained that Miller was arrested by the police because he was identified by a witness as the only person who came to the spot where the money was dropped and vanished thereafter.
Chief Supt. Yartey-Tawiah said although the victim denounced seeing Miller as a member of the gang that kidnapped her, the police were able to picked up communication signals between Miller and Asiedu.
“The police reasonably believe that Miller went to pick the money that was dropped. His involvement is circumstential,” he added.
Chief Supt. Yartey-Tawiah said the police have not been able to establish the real motive of the crime but could only describe it as a “case of conspiracy, adoption, kidnapping and extortion” of money.
He said appealed to school authorities to revise their security operations taking cognisance of the sophisticated nature of the crime to avoid a recurrence.
He said both staff and pupils must be sensitised on security matters since all other schools were at risk.
Chief Supt. Yartey-Tawiah described the kidnapping incident as a new hybrid crime committed in hollywood fashion and which could only be attributed to infiltration of uncensored foreign films.
He, therefore, appealed to the Cinematography and Censorship Board to assist fight crime by not allowing such films to come into the country.