The police work with information

Since the beginning of this year, pressure has been mounted on the police to expedite action on three girls aged between 15 and 21 who went missing last year.

The first, Priscilla Blessing Bentum, 21, a student, reportedly left home in August 2018 for choir practice but never returned and preliminary investigations indicate that she was abducted at Kansaworodo, a suburb of Takoradi.

Ruth Love Quayeson, 18, is also believed to have taken a cab ride from her home in Diabene to the Butumagyedu Junction last December and never returned.

Then Priscilla Mantebea Koranchie, 15, on December 21, 2018 allegedly told her younger siblings that she was taking a walk to a nearby town, Nkroful, and since then no one has heard from her.  

In the latest twist to the saga of the missing girls, the United States and the United Kingdom have both announced the deployment of teams of investigators to assist the Ghana Police Service.

But while this is welcome news, the Daily Graphic believes that nothing may change in the status of the missing girls if the public does not help the investigators with the right information.

To solve crimes such as murder and kidnapping, police investigators need the cooperation of all, especially those who are close to the victims.

While individuals in other places are quick to volunteer information to the police, investigators and other security personnel working to unravel criminal activities that have occurred, in this country there is so much apathy and reluctance on the part of family members, friends, acquaintances and even total strangers who may have some information that could help in solving mysteries.

Sometimes we make our beliefs, customs and the fear of revealing things we consider personal or which we believe may tarnish the names of the victims or their families come in the way when we have to volunteer information.

The Daily Graphic, however, believes that in cases such as the kidnapping of the three girls which every Ghanaian wants solved with dispatch, it is the disclosure of all information required about the victims which may give the investigators the lead to work with.

 Otherwise, no matter the number of crack investigators who offer to help from around the world and the commitment that the police show in solving the cases, finding the three girls may end up a wasted effort.

The Daily Graphic, therefore, urges all close relations and friends of the kidnapped girls to volunteer every information they can garner to help in solving the mystery of their disappearance without further delay.