Taxi driver remanded for abducting boy, 3

April 12, 2011 (Page 3)

THE taxi driver who is alleged to have abducted a three-year-old boy, Kwabena Agyei-Henaku, was yesterday remanded in custody by the Accra District Magistrate Court.
Emmanuel Amanor, who was tasked to pick the toddler to and from school, refused to return the little boy home after picking him up from school around 3 p.m. on March 4, 2011.
The plea of the accused person, who is facing a provisional charge of murder, was not taken.
The prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Mr C. Abadamlora, prayed the court to remand the accused person because investigations were ongoing to unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the toddler.
The facts of the case are that the toddler’s grandmother, who was alarmed by Amanor’s delay in returning the boy, called the boy’s mother to inform her that the driver had failed to bring him home.
The prosecution said after several attempts to reach the taxi driver failed, the school was called and it was confirmed that the boy had been picked up at 3 p.m.
Efforts to get the taxi driver on the phone failed and that resulted in the subsequent reporting of the matter to the Adenta Police.
A witness met Amanor at home and confronted him over the whereabouts of the missing boy, but Amanor got furious, claiming that he had sent the child to the parents and drove away.
On March 5, 2011, Little Henaku’s family was able to get Amanor on phone. Amanor then said he was on his way to the Agyei-Henakus home but failed to turn up and even put off his cellular phone.
According to the prosecution, a group of young men at Adenta who knew about Amanor and the missing boy spotted Amanor driving by and chased him with another car to the Association International School where he was eventually caught in traffic.
When Amanor was questioned about the whereabouts of the boy, he explained that he had been involved in an accident and was on his way to the police station to report the accident.
At the police station, Amanor told the police that he had an accident, during which Little Henaku hit his head against the dashboard and that the boy was on admission at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
Amanor later changed the story and said an articulated truck had hit the taxi and Little Amanor had broken his neck and died so he (Amanor), out of fear, dropped him into a valley in Larteh in the Eastern Region.
Consequently, Amanor was arrested and sent where he said he had dropped the child but it was only Little Henaku’s schoolbag that was found on the hill.
The prosecution said the chief of the area then organised a search party to look for the toddler’s body in the valley but the search party returned with his school uniform, socks and lunch box.