Famous Ghanaian media personality and host of Standpoint, Oheneyere Gifty Anti has advised the general public to beware of kidnappers in Ghana.

Her caution comes after her 'grandson' was kidnapped Thursday morning.

According to Gifty Anti, the boy, [name unknown] was on his way to classes when he was snatched off a bicycle he was riding and whisked away in a minivan.

She, however, revealed that the boy managed to escape and was later found by a good Samaritan at Kpone, a neighbourhood in Tema.

"Please people be on the watch out!! One of my grandsons was kidnapped this morning on his way to classes!!! He was snatched off his bike and pushed into a minivan. Lucky he managed to run and was found by a Good Samaritan at Kpone!!! I can’t give more information now: because the police have taken over. Please please let’s be extremely careful!!!", Oheneyere wrote on Facebook.

Criminal Code 1960 (Act 29)

According to Chapter 5 of the Criminal Code 1960 (Act 29), kidnapping can be described as th. unlawful imprisonment of a person. The unlawful taking or detention of a child under the age of 18 constitutes an offence of abduction.

A total of 504 cases of kidnapping were reported from 2011-2019, according to the Minister of Interior, Mr. Ambrose Dery's 2019 report.

This means that on the average, about 56 kidnapping cases are reported annually.

In the Interior Minister’s report, 47 cases were recorded for the year [2019] alone.

The cases of kidnapping and abduction are relatively dispersed across the various regions of Ghana. Kidnapping cases, including the Takoradi Missing Girls which made headlines

throughout the year, brought the attention of most civilians to this type of offences against the person.

Root causes of kidnapping & abduction

While some think of kidnapping and related offences as an emerging crisis, available reports indicate it is a persistent crime.

Generally, the root causes of crime, including kidnapping and abduction, may be associated with multiple socio-political factors (such as the entrenched trend of bad and corrupt governmental policies, rural urban migration), socio-economic problems, urbanization, and the complicated mixture of the political climate and unemployment.

The growing number of migrants from neighboring countries (such as Nigeria, Togo, and Benin), impunity and under-reporting of cases of kidnapping and abduction by family of victims have also been linked to the causes of these types of crime