Member of the legal team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Abraham Amaliba
Member of the National Democratic Congress’ legal team, Abraham Amaliba, has pointed out that he “smells a rat” concerning the new statement released by the police on the Takoradi kidnapping victim Josephine Panyin Mensah, naming her as a suspect in her alleged kidnapping.
He thus drew a comparison of the Police statement on the alleged kidnapping with that of the alleged murder of the social activist Macho Kaaka in Ejura, saying two persons were arrested in that case and later “his brother was arrested just to muddy the waters”.
Mr Amaliba said he is sceptical about the new twist in the police statement because the doctor of the European Hospital where the victim went for her antenatal pointed out that he needed clearance from the regional medical association before he could put out the information about the victim’s pregnancy status.
The private legal practitioner thus quizzed if such clearance had been given to the doctor, which the police failed to address in their statement.
He quizzed that by considering the victim as a suspect in her alleged kidnapping, does that mean the police are moving away from the crime of kidnapping because, to him, the victim cannot kidnap herself.
Mr Amaliba also indicated that it could be how the Western Regional Minister came out too quick to comment on the issue the way he did may have formed the basis for the new statement by the police on the matter.
He thus called it “a cover-up”, which will not work under the vigilant eyes of Ghanaians because to him, the victim, her family, market women and community all attested to the fact that she was indeed pregnant.
Mr Amaliba noted that the police declaring her a suspect is “dangerous” because there are many kidnapping cases in Takoradi. It will put fear in people to come out to report when they are kidnapped.
He said Takoradi had seen its fair share of kidnapping, and because of the oil boom in that region, it has registered a high influx of miscreants in that enclave. So for the police to come out with such a statement when the doctor told the media that he needed clearance before releasing anything must be taken with a pinch of salt.
Mr Amaliba made this statement in an interview with Berla Mundi on the New Day show on TV3, Thursday, September 23.
He was commenting on the heels of a new statement by the Western Regional Police Command naming the victim of the alleged kidnapping Josephine Panyin Mensah as a suspect in the matter.
“I smell a rat; with this, I smell a rat. This is akin to the Kaaka case, where two people were arrested for threatening his life and all of a sudden, we saw a somersault where his brother was included just to muddy the waters. I smell a rat because the doctor of the hospital indicated that he needed clearance before [he] could put out the information. Does it mean that the clearance has been given? We have not been told by the police. By taking the woman who is a victim of an alleged kidnapping to be a suspect, are we now moving away from the crime of kidnapping? Because you can’t kidnap yourself”, Mr Amaliba charged on the New Day show.