By mid-day Wednesday, September 22, 2021, Kwabena Okyere Darko, the Western Regional Minister was topping the trends on mainstream and social media platforms.
He was at the receiving end of barrage of attacks from a section of the public who were furious about his revelation that the supposed kidnapped victim, Josephine Panyin Mensah was not pregnant as widely circulated.
In an interview with Angel FM on Tuesday, September 21, 2021, Kwabena Okyere Darko said that “from the BNI’s preliminary investigations, they said this whole story was fake, and the medical doctor who took care of her said she wasn’t pregnant”.
With his disclosure coming in the heat of Josephine Mensah’s escape from the alleged abductors, a section of Ghanaians were left disappointed.
His statement was heavily criticized with Kwesi Pratt and Captain Smart being some of the public figures who went wild on him.
Time however proved him right as the police confirmed his statement that Josephine Mensah was neither kidnapped nor pregnant.
“Following her reappearance and on the basis of our preliminary investigations so far, the police wishes to state the following:
"The police is heavily relying on medical experts who have examined her. Their findings are that, Josephine Panyin Mensah was never pregnant within the period under review following thorough medical examination by medical doctors at the Axim Government hospital,” the police statement said.
The police further stated that records at the European Hospital in Takoradi where she was said to have sought for medical attention, had no record of proof of her pregnancy
"Investigations also suggest the suspect may have conspired with other persons over her possible planned disappearance
“Three people have so far been arrested for further questioning on possible conspiracy charges,” the statement released on Wednesday September 22 added.
Despite the confirmation by the police, some people still had doubts. Family and friends of Josephine Mensah went to the extent of demonstrating and invoking curses on the Western Regional Minister and the police for attempting to discredit the story of Josephine Mensah.
The lack of mistrust for the police and public institutions had fed into the issue with people still buying into Josephine Mensah’s narration as a victim of an abduction who lost her nine-month old pregnancy during the kidnapping.
The dust however settled and the final vindication of Kwabena Okyere Darko came late Friday September 24, 2021 when Josephine Mensah confessed to faking her pregnancy and kidnap.
She reportedly told investigators in Takoradi that the kidnapping was the final part of a plot to please her husband with fake pregnancy.
This prompted a reaction from Kwabena Okyere Darko, who in an Asempa FM interview, hit out at his critics and disclosed the source of his earlier information.
“When Josephine’s case came up, I was following and at a point, I heard the kidnappers needed some ransom, I provided some money in order for her to be rescued; it was my headache. So, if we are trying to solve a problem and later, we realized that whatever is going on is fake, we have to put it out to the public so that the public will have the confidence that the city they live in is not scary.
“What sin have I committed in putting out factual information, meanwhile I referenced a doctor at the Axim Government Hospital. All of a sudden people think that they’ve gotten some meat to chew, they don’t even listen and they kept on talking, talking, talking and tarnishing the image of Sekondi-Takoradi as well as my image. OB, you’ve stayed in Takoradi before and you know the family I come from; we’re not cheap. Sometimes I get worried when I hear some people speak the way they do,” Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah popularly called Kobby told Asempa FM’s Osei Bonsu on Thursday, September 23.
“Whether or not I was wrong in communicating the information available to me as the Chairman of Regional Security Council (REGSEC), the most important thing is the fact that we are providing. It is not about emotions, if you guide your thoughts wisely and you rely on your emotions, you end up becoming stupid. So, Ghanaians should be circumspect in talking about people when this information is given to the public…we’ve been disgraced for too long,” Kwabena Okyere Darko Mensah lamented.
Kwabena Okyere Darko and Josephine Mensah