Stella Amedorme has been sentenced to three years in prison with hard labour after pleading guilty to abducting an eight-month-old child at Kpando Market in Ghana.
The 31-year-old was sentenced by the Kpando Circuit Court on Monday, 3 August 2026. The case was heard by Her Honour Diana Dzifa Amefinu, who found Amedorme guilty after she admitted the child abduction charges against her.
The incident took place on Thursday, 16 July, when Gloria Mansah Dzagbo reported that her son, Joel Dzidefo Acheampong, had been taken from her under false pretences.
According to the prosecution, Dzagbo had been selling groundnuts at Kpando Market while carrying her baby strapped to her back. When the child began crying, Amedorme offered to hold him temporarily so that Dzagbo could continue with a transaction.
The prosecution told the court that three bowls of groundnuts had been measured when Dzagbo realised she had run out of stock. She then told Amedorme that she needed to visit another shop to collect more groundnuts.
Having trusted Amedorme to look after her son, Dzagbo left the baby with her while she went to obtain the additional stock. But when she returned, neither Amedorme nor the child was at the market.
Dzagbo reported the disappearance to the police, who activated their missing-child response procedures. The Ghana Police Service circulated the child’s photograph through its communication channels across the country and alerted relevant units to help trace Amedorme and locate the missing baby.
Amedorme was arrested on Saturday, 18 July, at a hideout in Bowiri Toviate in the Oti Region. The prosecution said she had introduced Joel Dzidefo Acheampong to her boyfriend as their biological son.
The child was recovered and Amedorme was arrested following coordinated efforts involving the police and other relevant authorities, according to the prosecution.
Amedorme was later brought before the Kpando Circuit Court and remanded into police custody. The case was adjourned on 20 July and again on 27 July to allow further proceedings before the guilty plea and sentencing.
The court subsequently imposed a three-year sentence with hard labour after the accused admitted responsibility for abducting the child.
The prosecution’s account said the child’s disappearance began with an offer by Amedorme to assist Dzagbo at the market, but ended with a nationwide police alert and the suspect’s arrest two days later in the Oti Region.
