Suspected Kidnapper Repatriated To Togo

JAVIEW Tchimou, 32, the Ivorian who allegedly kidnapped two girls from Togo and Cote d’Ivoire was repatriated to Togo on Thursday to assist the Togo police in their investigation into the case.

He was taken away by officials of the International Police Organisation (INTERPOL), Togo, with the assistance of INTERPOL Ghana.

Sources close to INTERPOL Ghana, told the Times yesterday, that because the crime was committed in Togo and Cote d’Ivoire it was required that the suspect was taken to the two countries to assist the police in those countries in their investigations.

The officials also went along with Sandra Adogo, 12, one of the kidnapped girls and her parents who had arrived in Accra on hearing that their daughter was in Ghana.

Ms. Siku Ablavi, mother of Sandra told the Times that she was happy that her daughter was alive and commended the efforts of the National Investment Bank and the Police.

According to her, when her daughter went missing some residents in her neighbourhood accused her of using Sandra for rituals.

She said over 3,000 CFA was spent in Togo on media announcements over her missing daughter.

Tchimou was arrested by officials of the Adenta Branch of the National Investment Bank with the assistance of the Madina Divisional Police when he went there to collect money from a Western Union money transfer. The money was the ransom money he had demanded from the parents of the children.

The Madina Divisional Commander, Chief Superintendent Elizabeth Allandu, said on December 6, the police received information from the bank that they had arrested, a man who they suspected to be either a thief or a kidnapper.

She said according to officials of the bank, Tchimou on the afternoon of December 6 arrived at the bank to collect money through Western Union.

She said attached to the money, which was sent from Togo, was the warning. “It is fraud, call police”.

Subsequently, the bank mounted surveillance on him until they invited the police to pick him. He was said to have gone to the bank with the two children, Bernice Ntsomo, nine, an Ivorian, and Sandra, Togolese.

Mrs. Allandu said it was later that the police had information from their counterparts in Togo that Tchimou was being sought for allegedly kidnapping the children from Cote d’Ivoire and Togo.

The Togo police stated that Tchimou kidnapped Bernice from Cote d’Ivoire on August 6 and Sandra sometime in October.

She said the police learned that Tchimou’s modus operandi was to kidnap children and demand huge sums of money from their parents before the children are released.

Mrs. Allandu said immediately Tchimou was arrested, she informed the Togo police who arrived with the parents of Sandra. She said Sandra’s mother broke down in tears on seeing her daughter.