Police forced T’di lady to plead guilty to kidnapping

Twenty-nine-year-old (29) Joanah Krah was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment on Tuesday, October 26, by the Takoradi Circuit Court A.

Joanah was reported to have been kidnapped when his adopted father reported the issue to the Ghana Police after a call was placed to him where the alleged kidnappers demanded a sum of GHS5,000 for her release on Saturday, October 23.

According to the police, upon mounting a search and Joana realising the seriousness and the length of her fake kidnapping reported to the Takoradi Central Police that she was not kidnapped but only pranked her adopted father.

Legal Aid says they are looking into the matter to see what can be done about the extent of punishment meted out Joana as they think the court was too harsh on her.

Speaking to Lawyer Ebo Donkor, who is with the Legal Aid in Sekondi-Takoradi indicted that the procedure leading to the conviction was too fast and the lady was not represented by a lawyer in court as well.

According to Lawyer Donkor, Joana Krah was advised by the CID who was in charge of the case to plead guilty to the charges in court with the promise of being given a lighter sentence or even a fine by the judge.

He made it known this information was gathered after his meeting with Joana’s family.

Lawyer Donkor said it is an offence on the side of the CID to advise an accused person because the accused may not appreciate the judgement after his/her plea.

The action the legal aid will take on the matter will be to appeal on the reduction of sentence and will legally take on the CID who advised Joana to plead guilty as they believe, this act is getting too common in the system which they will need to flush out.