Caregiver Arrested For Maltreating Baby Who Died Later
The Accra Region Police Command has arrested a caregiver in connection with the death of an 11-month-old baby.
They are investigating a video footage in which the 54-year-old woman is seen mistreating the girl whilst feeding her as well as circumstances leading to the child’s subsequent death.
The suspect, Clara Ayani-Ampah, was picked up after management of Happy Bloomers Creche at Agbogba made available to the police, the video surveillance fitted in the room where the disturbing act took place.
Allegra Yaba Ackah Mensah was pronounced dead at the North Legon Hospital, where managers of the creche rushed her.
Subsequently, the parents of the victim lodged a complaint regarding circumstances leading to the child’s death, and the caregiver was arrested.
In the video sighted, the victim was in a colourful and neatly decorated room with two other babies, with one standing in a baby’s cot while the other was lying on the floor.
Madam Ayani-Ampah is seen attending to Allegra, who was sitting on a stool. She leaves the room and returns in approximately 30 seconds with a cup.
Upon her arrival, she is seen cleaning the floor with a tissue. Then, she tries to force a cup of porridge into the victim’s mouth whilst holding the baby’s hand tightly behind her.
In an attempt to get the child to swallow the porridge, the caregiver is captured, pushing the baby’s head into the cup. But the little girl resists, with her hands, she tries to pull the cup away.
This gets the 54-year-old furious; she sharply removes the baby’s hands from the cup, puts the cup down briefly and holds Allegra’s hands tightly behind her.
The now helpless baby, who appears to be suffocating, begins to throw both legs into the air ferociously to get her caretaker to stop. But Madam Ayani-Ampah does not back off.
Giving an update on the case, the Public Relations Officer of the Accra Regional Police Command, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Effia Tenge said a docket on the case had been forwarded to the Attorney General’s Department for advice.
She said on Tuesday, May 18, the victim’s father reported to the Agbogba Police that the management of the school had called him to inform him that his daughter was sick and had been taken to the North Legon Hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
After lodging a report, police investigators went to the hospital to examine the baby’s body and subsequently took it to the Police Hospital morgue.
An autopsy was later conducted on the body, but the report was yet to be made available to the family, she said.
The Proprietress of the school, Christiana Atta Kumah, later handed over a CCTV of the day’s activities in the school to the police, which revealed how Madam Ayani-Ampah had handled the baby.
The body of the victim has since been released to the family for burial.