PHOTO: Father sells 4 kids for GH¢500

• Posted on July 18, 2016
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

A 46-year-old-man, Bright Agyepong is in the grips of the anti-human trafficking unit of the Police Service for selling his four children into slavery on the Volta Lake for GH¢500.

All four children have been rescued along with another boy who was sold into slavery at the age of four.

The arrest of Bright Agyepong, a self-styled bookman, followed after several complaints to the Kasoa Police by their mother about the absence of the children.

Bright told the police the children were living with their uncle at Kpando Torkor and under healthy condition.

According to him, he decided to send the children to their said uncle when he could no longer take care of them.

He gave the name of the said uncle as Kweku Adu.

However, a rescue mission organised by Challenging Heights, a child right NGO, in collaboration with the police, found all his claims to be false.

His brother at Kpando Torkor, Kweku Adu couldn’t be traced and Bright couldn’t provide a contact number to call his children’s benefactor.

Police intelligence led the team to Fantekope-biobio, an island community at the Afram Plains, where the children have been working as slaves in fishing for three to five years.

It was also discovered that the children work for two masters: one a pastor with the Resurrection Church of Christ and the other a chief of the community.

At the time of the rescue, both slave masters couldn’t be found anywhere in the village.

The four victims have since been identified by their mother who reported the case to the police.

A fifth victim was later identified as one of the slaves working with the pastor, and was also rescued.

Three of the victims were in servitude for five years whilst the other two spent three years.

The victims have been taken to a private shelter as police investigations continue.

By Emefa Abla ADJEI, Accra