As if starring in a melodramatic Nollywood movie serial, a 32-year-old kidnapper subjected a female medical doctor to a four-day psychological torture amidst blackmail before releasing her. Philip Asiedu demanded a ransom of GH¢40,000 from Dr Mrs Suitlana Aduama but did not succeed in collecting all before he was arrested. Meticulous investigations by the police led to the arrest of Asiedu when he thought he had got away with the heinous crime. He was put before an Accra Circuit Court, where he admitted kidnapping the school-girl. Asiedu was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in hard labour by the court, presided over by Nana Adjoa Coleman, last week Wednesday. He was also ordered to refund the GH¢12,000 he succeeded in collecting from Dr Aduama. In default, he would serve an additional two-year jail sentence. The facts of the case as presented to the court were that Dr. Aduama lived with her daughter at Dansoman while Asiedu lived at New Weija. On June 16, 2008, at about 4:40 p.m., Asiedu went to Alpha Beta Educational Complex at Dansoman and told the school authorities that he had been sent by Dr. Aduama to come for her daughter to send her home. Minutes after leaving the school premises with the girl, Dr. Aduama arrived for her daughter and was told that her colleague had come for her. At about 6:00 p.m, on the same day, Asiedu phoned Dr. Aduama and directed her to meet him at Papaye Fast Food Restaurant at Osu, Accra, to discuss the terms for the release of her daughter. He threatened to kill the girl should Dr. Aduama involve the police and requested for an amount of GH¢40,000 to release the child. The court was informed that Asiedu, accompanied by three others on the run, kept on transferring the girl from one hotel to another while simultaneously negotiating with her parent to meet them at designated locations with the ransom money. After fruitless efforts by the police to locate the accused persons, Dr. Aduama provided GH¢12,000 and handed it to Emmanuel Asane, a friend of Asiedu, who was a prosecution witness in this case. Asane collected the said amount in a polythene bag and handed it over to Asiedu, who was monitoring proceedings a distance at Sakaman in Accra. Aseidu was later arrested by the police through the assistance of Asane and during a search in his room the child's school bag with some books were found. Source: The Spectator