A suspected baby thief in Takoradi, Western region, has pleaded guilty to the offence as fresh details explain the thinking behind kidnapping one-year-old Mawusi.

The suspect, Rose Mawusi Fiaku, 42 years, had been trying to show proof of the results of her pregnancy to her concubine, Lawson Lartey, 33 years old.

Photo: Rose Fiaku and Lawson Lartey

Counsel for Lawson Lartey, Emmanuel Kofi Arthur told a pool of reporters, his client, a mason, did not know that his pregnant concubine had had a miscarriage.

“But she continued to give impression to my client that indeed she had delivered,” he said.

During the night hours the suspect, Rose Fiaku, a seamstress, would bring a baby to her concubine claiming “this is your son”.

The mason who frequently travels, returned from a long stay-away and demanded to see his “son”.

After some three days of pressure from the eager “father”, Rose Fiaku returned with a one-year-old boy much to the delight of Lawson Lartey.

To get this “son”, Rose would comb through Market Circle in Takoradi, Friday, March 22.

She would hear a woman mention ‘Mawusi’ – her name too. Only this woman was referring to her son.

The suspect approached the woman and complainant, Harriet Eshun, a petty trader, and used the coincidence of their Ewe names to strike a conversation and an acquaintance.

The suspect, according to the police statement, offered to buy her sausage for the children of her ‘new friend’ and complainant- One-year old victim Francis Mawusi Ahiagbenu and his three-year-old brother Lucas Mawuli Ahiagbenu.

The suspect returned with the three-year-old brother of the victim who did not fit her plan to present a one-year-old child to the ‘waiting father’, Lawson Lartey.

Market Circle in Takoradi was thrown into a frenzy over another story of a missing child, as the city is still hurting from the kidnapping of three teenagers last year.

Away from the agitated market was a peaceful home in Effiakuma where Rose Fiaku lived with Lawson Lartey.

The mason would go for a stroll with his “son” whom he named Ibrahim, showing him to neighbours, his lawyer said outside court.

It was a CCTV fixed to the office of the Ghana Home Loans company that would capture the slim, fair and fairly short woman walking off with the baby hooked over her right hand.

Rose Mawusi Fiaku was arrested at dawn with Lawson Lartey who has been charged with abetment of crime.

Inside the Takoradi Harbor Circuit court, there were more stories.

Rose Fiaku told the court presided over judge Abena Akyem Dorku that, she was sick and had been throwing up. Curiously, the presiding judge asked if she was pregnant.

Rose who had claimed she had had a miscarriage, claimed she was pregnant.

But the story changed after the judge ordered a pregnancy test be conducted. The seamstress explained that would not be necessary as she has had another miscarriage after police mishandled her during the arrest.

While the self-confessed baby thief awaits possible sentencing, her concubine, Lawson Lartey had pleaded not guilty.

His legal counsel does not believe he will be convicted. “I can tell you that this is not a matter that is going to get a conviction,” he said.