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Takoradi: Fake kidnapping?
The ‘oil city’ of Takoradi is now said to be buzzing with a queer sound; kidnapping ! kidnapping !! kidnapping !!!
It is said that in some parts of Takoradi too some young men have started questioning any pregnant young lady they meet; whether the ‘bump’ is a ‘kidnap bump’, a ‘silicon bump’ or a ‘natural bump’.
Some of the young men, it is said, even attempt to touch such protruding bellies, while cracking all sorts of ‘expensive’ jokes to the embarrassment of young pregnant ladies in some parts of the ‘oil city’.
Kidnapping in Takoradi? Anyway, what is kidnapping at all?
According to Wikipedia, kidnapping is a criminal offence, consisting of unlawful taking and carrying away of a person by force or fraud; or the unlawful seizure and detention of a person against his will.
In all countries, kidnapping is considered a grave offence, punishable by a long prison sentence or death.
Wikipedia says, kidnapping was originally used as a term for the practice of stealing children for use as servants or labourers in the American colonies.
And currently, for instance, can a father kidnap his own child? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. You can be guilty of kidnapping your own child. If one parent decides to take the child physically away without the permission of the court or the other parent, you can be arrested and charged .
According to Wikipedia, corruption, unemployment, indiscipline, poverty, loss of societal values, inadequate security and get-rich-quick syndrome are some of the causes of kidnapping.
Kidnap and hostage survivors can experience stress reactions including denial, impaired memory, shock, numbness, anxiety, guilt, depression, anger and a sense of hopelessness.
And what is fake kidnapping? It is kidnapping that has been staged by the ‘victim’ who claims to have been abducted.
And what is ‘branding’ Takoradi now as ‘kidnapping city’?
28-year-old Josephine Panyin Mensah Simons was said to have left her home in Takoradi in the early morning of Thursday, September 16, 2021, on the pretext of going for jogging.
She was later reported missing, so someone allegedly called her family to demand a ransom before her release because had been kidnapped.
Her husband allegedly reported the matter to the police, which began a search for Josephine Simons, who was said to be nine months pregnant.
After ‘discovering’ her, police investigators and health experts discounted her kidnap and pregnancy stories, leading to her arraignment before the Takoradi Circuit Court on September 28, 2021.
Josephine was charged; for deceiving a public officer and publication of false news with the intent to cause fear and panic.
The court presided over by Mr. Michael Ampadu, granted her bail in the sum of GHc 50,000, with two sureties to be justified.
Prosecuting, Superintendent Emmanuel Basintale, told the court that the phone number used by the supposed kidnappers was registered in the name of the accused person.
Superintendent Basintale said, the prosthetics Josephine wore to pretend that she was pregnant was bought at the Takoradi Market Circle at the cost of GHc 30.
Really, the ‘icing on the cake’ of Josephine’s fake kidnapping was her fake pregnancy. And the fake pregnancy, because it was the ‘icing on the cake’ of the fake kidnapping, elicited a huge emotional national rescue support for her.
Professor Joseph Osafo, a psychologist, however, says Josephine rather needs psychological examination instead of prosecution.
Speaking on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo, Professor Osafo stressed: “Josephine needs a lot of attention now. We need to listen to Josephine because for all you know, a lot of women are also experiencing such issues.
“What is going on between the woman and her husband? How has the husband’s family been treating her? “
But Mr Maurice Ampaw, an Accra-based lawyer, rather says Josephine has caused economic loss to the state.
According to lawyer Ampaw, the prosecution should add “causing financial loss to the state “, to the two other charges against her.
“Her conduct has affected our drive to convince investors into the Western Region,” Mr Ampaw says.
Lawyer Ampaw says: ” The President is outside the country, convincing investors to come to Ghana and look at what she has done , sending a false signal to create the impression that there is insecurity in the Western Region.”
Readers, what is your own view about the fake kidnapping in the ‘oil city’?
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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BY ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
