• Josephine Panyin Mensah was kidnapped while going on her regular routine
• She was nine months pregnant
• She was found at Axim
The circumstances surrounding the kidnap of a pregnant woman, Josephine Panyin Mensah, in the Western Regional capital of Takoradi and later being found at Axim is quite complicated.
There have been some
Read full articletwists and turns to the story as to whether or not Josephine Panyin Mensah was truly nine months pregnant or she was only faking her pregnancy and subsequent kidnap.
In all this, the family of the victim have been giving the same account that, Josephine was heavily pregnant and almost due to deliver.
GhanaWeb chronicles the Josephine Mensah pregnancy and kidnap saga.
When Josephine was found at Axim, Jerry Abobrah, a medical doctor at the Axim Government Hospital who examined her said, the victim [Josephine] was not pregnant. This implies that, she has not delivered in the past six days when Josephine was kidnapped.
Before her kidnap, Josephine was a frequent patient at the Takoradi Government Hospital. The medical administrator who confirmed this to Joy FM could not give details as to whether or not Josephine Panyin Mensah was attending for antenatal services. However, a report by 3news states that some sources at the hospital claim they do not know the name, Josephine Panyin Mensah.
The mother of Josephine, Agnes Essel confirmed to TV3 that her daughter has been with her for the past three weeks until the day she was allegedly kidnapped.
In that period, she had been visiting the Takoradi hospital for checkups. That, the antenatal book is with Josephine.
Neighbours of Josephine Panyin Mensah, insist that she was pregnant at the time she reportedly went missing.
Some of them who spoke to TV3 said, even though they cannot medically prove their claims, everything showed that Josephine was heavily pregnant.
These comments come on the back of pronouncements by the Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko Mensah, that an intelligence report he has received suggests that Josephine was not pregnant.
“From their preliminary investigations, NIB suspects that this whole story was fake and that the medical doctor who has even looked at her revealed she wasn’t pregnant. That is the immediate information that we have. The police are still with her,” he told Kumasi based Kessben FM.
Kwabena Okyere Darko Mensah later told Angel FM that, "I want to put it on record based on the information the security agency has provided to me that the woman was not pregnant. She was not pregnant according to the doctor who attended to her at Axim. Secondly, she wasn't beaten by anyone as earlier reported.
"If you are a woman who hasn't given birth in a community where you are being pressurized to have a baby, women do so many things, sometimes these things happen."
Josephine Panyin Mensah
