TWO WHO OFFERED BOY FOR SALE JAILED 40 YEARS (BACK PAGE)

TWO young men who offered a 16-year-old boy for sale have been jailed 20 years each by the Tarkwa Circuit Court.
The victim, Akwesi Buabeng, was offered for sale at Sefwi-Asawinso in the Western Region at a price of GH¢30,000.
He was transported from Kumasi by the convicts, Kenneth Owusu Badu, 26, and Moses Atongo, 20, kept in a house where he was well fed while they went round looking for a suitable buyer.
The victim, who did not know his new environment, mentioned his father’s name only as Eblutor from Denu in the Volta Region.
He told the police that one of the convicts told him they should relocate to the Western Region for a lucrative ‘galamsey’ business to which he obliged.
After the foiled trafficking, the Asawinso Police are now left with the puzzle as to how to locate the relatives of the victim.
According to the police, Badu, who lived in the Sefwi area, was informed by Atongo, who resided in Kumasi, that he had managed to secure a boy who he was sending to the region for sale.
Badu was said to have quickly gone to town to look for potential buyers for the transaction.
Upon a tip-off however, a policeman was made to disguise himself and posed as an Alhaji interested in buying the boy.
Badu then informed Atongo, who had then returned to Kumasi, that a buyer had been found.
When Atongo arrived at Asawinso, the disguised police officer was contacted and offered to pay GH¢20,000 for the boy.
Atongo, however, insisted on GH¢30,000 but after a lengthy bargaining they agreed on GH¢20,000.
The buyer then offered them part of the money which they accepted and as agreed upon, offered the boy to him.
They were arrested just after the transaction.
Meanwhile, the police are making frantic efforts to find the parents of the victim.