Two friends who conspired and kidnapped a 14-year old boy at Ejisu in Ashanti Region have been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment in hard labour by Juaben Circuit Court.

Thirty-eight year old unemployed Charles Appiah and Manasseh Fumey, who is 29 lured the teenager to KNUST Junction in Kumasi.

They bundled him into a waiting Toyota  car to Apatrapa, another suburb and demanded 3,000 Dollars [$ 3,000] ransom from the boy's relatives.

The two were appearing before the Juaben Circuit Court for the first time on Friday after their arrest by the Ejisu Police.

They are facing conspiracy to commit crime and kidnapping charges.

Charles Appiah was sentenced to 5 years and 9 years, respectively, for the two counts conspiracy to commit crime and kidnapping to run concurrently.

He pleaded guilty to all charges.

Manasseh Fumey, a security guard at Living Waters Hospital at Ejisu was slapped with 3-years in imprisonment in hard labour for failing to report a felony.

He had earlier pleaded not guilty with explanation to  conspiracy as well as not guilty to kidnapping.

Prosecution told the court the two friends who lived in the same vicinity with the family of the victim planned and kidnapped the boy with the help of two others now at large.

The suspects had lured the second year Junior High School student from his Kwamo family house, chloroformed him,  and took him to a secluded storey-building at Apatrapa where he was locked up in a room on March 24, 2019.

Appiah is said to have paid for a room in the quiet area.

Inspector Victoria Mensah told the court when the victim regained consciousness, one of the kidnappers , identified only as Felix who is on the run asked for the victim's grandmother's phone number, called and demanded a ransom before his release.

However, on March 27, 2019, shouts from the victim who had then managed to cut the rope the suspects used to tie him up attracted a passer-by who informed police at Tanoso, leading to his rescue.
Manasseh Fumey told the court though he knew the plan of his friends to kidnap the victim a month ahead, he wanted them to execute it before he would inform police.
He had earlier told the court he did not take part in planning and kidnapping of the 14-year old JHS student.
According to him, he reported the plot by Charles and his colleagues to police two days after victim was reported missing.

The judge, His Honour, Abdul Yusuf Assibey, described his explanation unreasonable.

He cited  Section 22 of the Criminal Act which states," Every person who, knowing that a person designs to commit or is committing a felony, fails to use all reasonable means to prevent the commission or completing thereof, is guilty of a misdeamenour"..

 The judge convicted Manasseh for failing to report a felony to the police and sentenced him to 3-years imprisonment in hard labour.

Meanwhile, the court has issued a warrant for the arrest of fugitives Augustine and Felix whilst Manasseh will re-appear before the court on May 6, 2019 to answer charges on kidnapping.