STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Three suspects arrested for producing and distributing child sexual abuse material in the Ashanti and Bono regions; four children aged six to thirteen rescued
- A midwife at a private Osu hospital has been arrested as the seventh suspect in an ongoing child trafficking syndicate; a five-year-old girl remains missing in Pokuase
- An East Legon entrepreneur is in custody for drugging women in nightclubs, recording their abuse, and disseminating material on Telegram
- A murder suspect was arrested in Togo while attempting to sell his victim’s mobile phone; a fetish priest faces charges for the ritual killing of a woman in the Central Region
Accra, Ghana — Ghana’s Criminal Investigations Department made a series of sweeping announcements on May 12th, unveiling arrests across five serious criminal cases — all involving extreme violence or the exploitation of children.
CID Director-General Commissioner of Police Lydia Yaako Donkor addressed journalists at a press briefing in Accra, saying the Ghana Police Service continues to intensify efforts to combat organised crime through local and international collaboration.
The breadth of the cases laid out — from international child sexual abuse networks to domestic trafficking syndicates to a ritual killing — signals both an escalation of serious crime in Ghana and a police force that is increasingly relying on digital forensics and Interpol partnerships to pursue offenders across borders.
Children Sold for Abuse Material — Across Two Continents
The most internationally significant case involves a transnational child sexual exploitation network stretching from rural Ghana to Australia.
Investigations began after Interpol Accra received intelligence from Interpol Canberra and the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation Victim Identification Team concerning an Australian national currently standing trial in Australia for child exploitation offences.
The offender had transferred funds to facilitators based in Ghana in exchange for child sexual exploitation material, with victims located in Ghana.
Joint operations by Interpol Accra and the Child Digital Forensics and Cybercrime Unit led to arrests in the Ashanti and Bono regions, where four children aged between six and thirteen were rescued.
What makes this case particularly disturbing is where the abuse originated.
According to COP Donkor, the offenders were not strangers — they included an older brother and a mother of the victims, people entrusted by law and custom with the children’s care.
COP Donkor stressed that child sexual exploitation remains a serious offence under Ghana’s Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038), punishable by up to ten years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both, and announced plans to establish more cybercrime and child protection units across the country.
Midwife Arrested, Five-Year-Old Still Missing
A separate but equally alarming case has exposed a child trafficking syndicate with roots in multiple regions — and a medical professional at its centre.
The latest suspect, identified as Lucinda Naomi Otchere, a midwife in charge of the maternity and labour ward at Trust Mother and Child Hospital in Osu, has been arrested for her involvement in the trafficking network.
The case began on April 10, when police received a complaint about the disappearance of seven-year-old Khadijah Karim in Kasoa. The child was allegedly lured by suspects under the pretext of taking her to see her biological mother, temporarily kept at another location, then returned to Kasoa and warned not to disclose what had happened.
Khadijah has since been rescued.
Investigators subsequently uncovered additional victims. A ten-month-old infant was traced to the Ashanti Region and allegedly sold to two suspects for GH¢35,000. That child has been reunited with the parents. But a five-year-old girl believed to have been transferred to a couple in Pokuase remains unaccounted for.
Police are appealing to anyone with information on the missing child to report to the nearest police station or use emergency numbers 191 and 112. Seven suspects are now in custody across the case; one, Grace Osei Efie, is on court bail.
The next hearing is scheduled for May 13 at the Ofakor Circuit Court.
Sedated, Abused, Filmed: An East Legon Predator
The CID also announced the arrest of Joshua Kojo Anani Boateng, age thirty-six, an entrepreneur and resident of East Legon, in connection with a case involving the non-consensual sharing of intimate images.
According to the briefing, Boateng operated a Telegram channel called “VIP Sleep Fetish 2025,” where he posted recordings of women he had sedated and sexually assaulted at Accra nightclubs using alprazolam — commonly known as Xanax.
Devices seized at the time of arrest included two iPhones, a MacBook laptop, an external hard drive, and empty sachets of alprazolam and midazolam pills.
The electronics have been submitted for digital forensic analysis. Investigators are working with the Food and Drugs Authority to verify the drug classifications.
Boateng has been arraigned, and investigations are continuing.
Murder on the Bypass, an Arrest in Togo
The CID announced the arrest of Wisdom Tetteh in connection with the murder of 27-year-old car dealer Theophilus Ashitey Armah, whose burnt body was discovered inside a vehicle at Adamafio Lane on the Legon Bypass on April 7, 2026.
Tetteh — described as a close friend of the deceased — allegedly lured Armah to his home under the pretense of a vehicle transaction, inflicted fatal head injuries, then sold the victim’s Hyundai Elantra for GH¢170,000, collecting GH¢80,000 as a part-payment before torching both the car and the body.
He was arrested on April 30 in the Republic of Togo through Interpol collaboration — while attempting to sell the deceased’s mobile phone. CCTV footage from the scene had implicated him.
Due to the severity of the burns, DNA samples have been obtained from the victim’s mother for forensic identification.
Ritual Killing in the Central Region
In the Central Region, a twenty-five-year-old fetish priest stands accused of the murder of Joyce Ekua Ampomaa, a forty-year-old trader whose decapitated and dismembered body was found in a bush on the outskirts of Ewutu-Bentum in March 2026.
According to police, Ampomaa had visited the suspect for spiritual assistance for her business. He allegedly led her into the bush under the pretense of collecting herbs before attacking her with a cutlass.
The suspect subsequently led police to sites in both the Volta and Central regions where body parts had been buried. He was arraigned before the Ada Brako District Court on March 13 and remains in police custody.
A Pattern That Demands Systemic Response
Taken together, Tuesday’s briefing is a portrait of crimes that exploit the most vulnerable — children, women, and the grieving — and increasingly use digital tools to do so.
The presence of a midwife in a trafficking syndicate and a mother among child abuse facilitators underscores that institutional trust is being weaponised.
COP Donkor commended the Australian Federal Police and local NGO Abuse Relief Corps for supporting investigations and victim care, and reaffirmed the Ghana Police Service’s commitment to protecting vulnerable children and ensuring that offenders are brought to justice.
Whether the institutional infrastructure — cybercrime units, DOVSU, the courts — can keep pace with the scale of what is being uncovered remains the critical question.
This article was edited with AI and reviewed by human editors
