Josephine Panyin Mensah, the 28-year-old woman at the centre of the alleged fake kidnapping and pregnancy case, has officially been arrested and detained by Police in Takoradi in the Western Region.
The woman, now a suspect, has been detained at the Takoradi Central police cells.
Josephine was officially taken into custody on Friday night, September 24, 2021, immediately after the police claimed that she had confessed that she deceived security officers and the entire country with a pregnancy and kidnapping story.
“The suspect, Josephine Panyin Mensah, 28, has confessed to the Police during further investigations and stated that neither was she pregnant nor ever being kidnapped. The public will be updated with further details,” police said in a statement.
The woman’s mother, Agnes Essel, who was also detained on Thursday, was also released on Friday night.
Meanwhile, residents of Takoradi who initially sympathized with Josephine have expressed shock and disappointment at the turn of events.
Josephine Panyin Mensah has been in the news since last Thursday after the media reported that she was nine months pregnant and had been kidnapped during a dawn walk.
She resurfaced a week later at Axim in the Western Region without her alleged pregnancy or baby.
She had claimed that she delivered the same day she went missing and that the kidnappers had stolen her baby.
The Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah subsequently claimed Josephine was not pregnant as reported, a claim subsequently corroborated by the Ghana Police Service.
Police conducted two separate medical tests on Josephine at different hospitals, with both reports proving that she was never pregnant.
Josephine’s relatives and neighbours however disagreed with the report of the Ghana Police Service.
