<<Print>>

Workers of Hello FM in Kumasi had the rudest shock of their lives on Friday afternoon when a 27-year-old nursing mother stormed their premises with a weird mission of selling her one-month-old baby girl for GH�20. Upon arriving at the radio station, desperate-looking Abena Mintaah informed the officials that she had been compelled to sell her light-skinned daughter due to the current prevailing economic hardship in the country. The shabbily-dressed nursing mother stressed that she has been consumed by the present financial difficulty to the extent that she is unable to feed herself and her baby. During an interrogation session with officials of the radio station, led by the news editor, Prince Osei Tutu, Mintaah disclosed that she was impregnated by one Kofi Nsenya, a driver�s mate. When quizzed about the whereabouts of Nsenya, the emaciated-looking nursing mother revealed that she has not set eyes on Nsenya since she delivered. According to her, she has been trying to trace Nsenya at his residence at Ahinsan, a suburb of Kumasi but to no avail, with no hints about his present location. Mintaah who claims that she hails from Adansi Fomena in the Ashanti region but stays at Atonsu, also a Kumasi suburb, said her information indicates that Nsenya vanished into thin air immediately he heard she had delivered. The 27-year-old nursing mother told her interrogators that she was forced to stop selling oranges which she depended on for her daily bread when she gave birth. Mintaah, whose eyes were filled with tears, indicated that since she gave birth, some good Samaritans in their house had been remitting her some money for her daily upkeep. Noting that the financial assistance she has been receiving from the generous persons in their house was not enough to keep her and her baby going, Mintaah said she would use proceeds from the sale of her baby to resume business. When made aware that the sale of babies was a crime punishable by law, Mintaah then pleaded with the radio station to publicize her plight to enable her get assistance from charitable persons so that she can keep the baby. When questioned about the whereabouts of her parents, the woman who was dark in complexion, mentioned that both her mother and father reside at Tema Community 9. Responding to why she has not all these while contacted her parents for assistance, Mintaah said she has lost her parents� contact number and that she has no money to trace them at their base in Tema. Answering a question as to how she managed to get a room in Kumasi, Mintaah indicated that the room was given to her by a certain sister who she has worked for before. Explaining her living conditions, Mintaah said because of financial constraint, she does not enjoy the supply of electricity in her room or potable water but has to trek for water from wells and other sources.