Grandpa In Court For kidnapping

Grandparrent's love for their grandchildren is very great, especially when crises rock the marriages of their parents.But such love which made a grandfather to forcibly take custody of his grandchildren from their father's relatives has landed Stephen Aboagye Boateng in trouble.

He was arraigned at the Accra Circuit Court last Tuesday on charges of abetment to assault and kidnapping.He pleaded not guilty.

Boateng,a driver,was granted bail in the sum of ¢50 million with a surety and asked to re-appear on August 26. Prosecuting,Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP),Kofi Abraham, said Emmanuel Oteng Appiah and Alexander Nti,the complainants,were brothers and lived at Golf City,Michel Camp,near Tema.

The accused person,he said,lived at Site 21,Community One, also in Tema and the father of Justice Aboagye Boateng, alias Dada,who lives in Accra.

According to DSP Abraham,the complainants'brother,Joseph Appiah Commey was married to Doris Aboagye,the daughter of the accused,with whom they had a child called Kingsley Twumasi Appiah Commey,aged nine.

He said the couple later left the country to live in New York and left the child in the custody of the complainants. In New York,he said,the couple had two other children, Emelia Appiah Commey,six,and Emmanuel Appiah Commey,two, who were brought to Ghana by their father to stay with the complainants.

The prosecutor said on or before July 19,this year,the accused person received a letter from his daughter in New York instructing him to go for her children from the complainants.

Consequently,DSP Abraham said,the accused instructed his son,Dada,and Kwaku and four others to go for the children by any means.

He said the six persons went to the residence of the complainants and decided to take the children by force but the complainants refused resulting in their being beaten up before the children were taken away.

When the accused was arrested on July 21,this year,and was granted a self-enquiry bail to report the following day with the children and those he sent to go for the children,he told the police that they had gone to Mpraeso and would be back on Sunday,July 24,2005.

On July 25,the accused reported to the police that the men had not returned to Accra and that he did not know Dada's residence in Accra to enable him to bring the children over.