A Lawyer, David Opare Asiedu and a Proprietress of an Orphanage, Elizabeth Arthur Adjei, have been sentenced to a three-year jail term each by an Accra Circuit Court after they were found guilty of deceiving a couple to give up their one-year-old child for adoption.
In addition, Judge Susana Eduful also ordered the lawyer to pay a fine of twelve thousand cedis, and the Proprietress, six thousand cedis. Madam Arthur Adjei was charged with defrauding by false pretense and the Lawyer, charged with abetment.
A third accomplice and son of the Proprietress, is, however, on the run. The two are said to have presented one Benjamin Kofi Okyere with a travel opportunity but ended up giving his one-year-old son for adoption to a white man on his blind side.
The Prosecutor, ASP Emmanuel Nyamekye, told the court that a friend of the complainant informed him in April, 2015, of a job opportunity for a family in Canada, and he was looking for an interested family to take up that opportunity.
ASP Nyamekye said the friend further informed the complainant that Madam Arthur Adjei would facilitate the documentation for the travel. The complainant expressed interest and was introduced to the proprietress. The complainant was able to raise an amount of 4,400 cedis out of the 5,000 he was asked to pay to procure the passports and other travel documents.
ASP Nyamekye said after making the part payment he was introduced to one Asiedu, a former Director of Social Welfare in the Central Region, by the Proprietress to assist him with the documentation.
The Prosecutor said that after waiting for a while, Madam Arthur Adjei informed the complainant that the documentation was ready but his wife would not be able to travel because she was pregnant and could only do so after delivery. The proprietress also informed the complainant that there was a problem with his passport and could only travel after three days.
According to ASP Nyamekye, Madam Arthur said the complainant’s son who was a year and a half then, could travel because there was nothing wrong with his document and that the supposed white man to take them to Canada would go ahead with the boy.
The prosecutor said the complainant waited for months with no sign of him travelling to Canada.
The complainant confronted Madam Arthur Adjei, who also directed him to the lawyer.
At the Lawyer’s office, the complainant was handed a document and was asked to keep it until his travel documents were ready.
ASP Nyamekye said the complainant was not convinced by the Lawyer’s explanation and therefore showed the document to a friend who, after reading it, revealed that his child had been adopted by the white man.