Sister who couldn’t afford GH¢60,000 ransom tells kidnappers to kill brother

Imagine this: your brother is kidnapped, the kidnappers demand a staggering GH¢60,000 ransom, and you simply can’t pay. What do you do?

For one sister, the heartbreaking—and frankly shocking—response was to tell the kidnappers to kill her brother rather than cough up the ransom. Yes, she allegedly told the kidnappers to go ahead and kill him.

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Francis Owusu, a driver from Asuom in Ghana’s Eastern Region, was abducted and held for ransom. His sister, Maabena, received the call from a random person demanding GH¢60,000 or her brother dies.

Speaking in an interview, Maabena said, “On Saturday morning, a woman called me, asking if I was the mother of Francis Owusu. I told her that I was the one. She then told me that she lived with Yaw Owusu, and he had told her he was going to work, but he hadn’t returned home and couldn’t be reached.”

According to Maabena, she immediately informed other family members, and they all began trying to contact Yaw Owusu.

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She recounted, “We kept calling his phone. After several attempts, someone finally picked up. I told the person we were looking for our brother, and he said they had him to kill. They were demanding GH¢60,000 within two hours, or they would murder him.”

Believing it was a scam and overwhelmed by the demand, she reportedly replied, “Even if we sell our family house, we can’t raise that kind of money, so you can kill him.” The next day, his lifeless body was found.

This isn’t an isolated tragedy. Ghana has seen a disturbing rise in kidnappings over the past decade—from the Takoradi girls in 2019 to recent cases in the north. Ransom demands have become an outrageous norm, while families are left to negotiate with criminals in real time.

Maabena now regrets her words, haunted by the possibility that her response sealed her brother’s fate. Her family is now pleading with the authorities to investigate the matter.

Kindly take calls like this seriously and report them to the necessary authorities. No one should have to lose their life this way.