•Reports indicate at the time of being kidnapped, Josephine Mensah was heavily pregnant
•The Western Regional Minister however claims the reports were untrue
It appears focus on the story of the alleged kidnapping of a pregnant woman at Takoradi has shifted from identifying the alleged culprits of her kidnapping to the question of supposed pregnancy at the time of her kidnap.
This new twist to the issue was necessitated by a revelation from the Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko Mensah that Josephine Panyin Mensah was not pregnant at the time she was kidnapped, contrary to previous reports.
Darko Mensah in a Kessben FM interview raised questions about the woman’s claim that she was kidnapped, implying that it could have been staged.
“Yesterday, the BNI sent me a report that she has been found and is currently at the Axim Government Hospital where she was receiving medical attention. However, their preliminary investigation indicates that the story was just a mere fabrication. They suspect that this whole story was fake and that the medical officer who looked at her said she is not pregnant and has never been pregnant,” he told Accra-based Kessben FM.
His comments have prompted a reaction from the family of Josephine Mensah who are demanding a transfer of their relative from the hospital that conducted the test on her.
In an Adom FM interview a member of the family said that she doubts the veracity of the test and wants her moved to Takoradi.
She stated that the family has no trust in the said doctor who conducted the test and alleged that the report could have been manufactured.
“We don’t trust the Axim doctor. The doctor who said she is not pregnant is not trustworthy. We want to take her from that doctor. The medical report can be fake. The doctor who said she has not given birth and is not pregnant can be fake so we need our family member here”, she told Adom FM.
Background of Josephine Mensah’s alleged kidnapping
Josephine was reported to the police as missing on September 16, with later reports indicating that some alleged kidnappers got in touch with her family to demand a ransom for her return.
She was found by a carpenter in Axim on Tuesday, September 21, 2021, and was said to be unable to speak from trauma. She is reported to have requested a pen and a paper through which she communicated her ordeal to the people who found her.
According to a carpenter who found her, a traumatized Josephine informed him through writing that she went into forced labour when the kidnappers grabbed her. He further stated that the baby died and was taken away from her.
Her family and security officers were later contacted and she was sent to a health facility at Axim for medical attention.
Josephine Mensah was found in Axim