Nearly two centuries after the obnoxious slave trade and slavery were abolished, two persons have found themselves at the wrong end of the law. Ekow Condua, 35 and Maxwell Asabir, 34, have been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment each by a circuit court in Takoradi for attempting to sell two human beings. The persons being offered for sale, the court presided over by Justice George Koomson was told, were children of the slave traders themselves. They are aged between seven and nine. Police Inspector Theophilus Agbemordza, prosecuting, told the court that on January 15, 2005, the two men went to the house of Enoch Tando, car dealer and chairman of the Cargo Section of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union at Agona Nkwanta in the Ahanta West District of the Western Region for financial assistance. The prosecutor told the court that, the two men wanted a car to buy but were short of funds and offered their two children for sale in order to raise the money. Each child was available for a purchase price of ¢200 million (GH¢20,000), according to the prosecution. Chief Inspector Agbemordza said that after the slave traders had made their offer, Mr. Tando asked to be excused for a moment. He left the room and alerted the police. The prosecutor said some policemen in mufti were dispatched to the house of Mr. Tando and pretended to be guarantors of the transaction. In the presence of the policemen, Mr. Tando feigned interest in the deal and offered ¢180 million (GH¢18,000) for each child. The convicts accepted the deal and after the transactions had been completed, the policemen arrested the traders. Slave trade was officially abolished in 1833 and since then it has been deemed a criminal act for anybody to purport to sell a human being. Source: The Ghanaian Times