Woman abandons two-month baby with 'waakye' vendor

Accra, June 29, GNA - A two-month-old baby was on Monday abandoned at La, a suburb of Accra, by a woman believed to be its mother, who after eating, left the infant with the food vendor under the pretext of visiting the toilet.

Mrs Victoria Nortey, a "waakye" seller, told the Ghana News Agency that about 1600 hours on Monday, a woman carrying the baby called at her joint and bought waakye from her daughter.

After eating, the woman left the baby in the care of the girl under the pretext of visiting the toilet.

"After waiting for hours without seeing the woman, my daughter came and narrated the incident to me, we looked everywhere for the woman but we could not find her" Mrs Nortey said, adding that she lodged a report with the La police who referred her to the Women and Juvenile Unit (WAJU) of the Police.

Mrs Sophia Amofa Torpey, WAJU Commander, told the GNA that the woman had also left a polythene bag, which contained the child's clothes, some toiletries and a weighing card.

Information on the weighing card indicated that the baby was born on April 28, 2004 at Konkromoase in the Bantama district of Ashanti. Information on the weighting card also gave the mother's name as Adisa Alhassan and the father's name as Issah Ibrahim.

Mrs Amofa Torpey was worried about the fact that the incident was the third to be reported to her unit this week.

She said WAJU would send a message to the Kumasi Police to help find the mother of the child and appealed to the public to also help trace the parents.