Families of kidnapped girls disappointed in police

The families of the three kidnapped girls in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis in the Western Region have expressed displeasure about the lack of information from the police concerning investigations on the abducted girls.

They have also expressed disappointment and dissatisfaction at the pace at which the police are carrying out the investigation, indicating that keeping the families in the dark about the whereabouts of the girls is having a huge emotional impact on the families.

“Apart from the fact that the families get information in the media almost two months since the Director General of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Commissioner of Police Mrs Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, made the announcement that the department had identified the location of the girls, nothing has been said or heard from the police,” the spokesperson of one of the families, Mr Michael Grant Hayford, said.

He made this known when Child Rights International (CRI), a child-centred organisation, paid a visit to the families during the Easter festivities.

The team from CRI, led by its Executive Director, Mr Bright Kweku Appiah, visited the families of the three girls at their respective houses and later met the spokespersons for the families.

After the meeting, the families appealed to the CRI to help them in retrieving and accessing information from the police regarding the investigations so far on the girls.

Background

It has been almost nine months since three girls from Diabene, a town in Sekondi-Takoradi, went missing.


The first victim, Priscilla Blessing Bentum, 21, a third-year student of the University of Education, Winneba, was reported missing by her parents in August.

On December 4, 2018, the second girl, Ruth Love Quayson, 18, a senior high school graduate, was also reported missing.

The third, Priscilla Mantebea Koranchie, a 16-year-old student of Sekondi College (SEKCO), was also reported missing on December 21, 2018.

The missing girls were later confirmed to have been kidnapped after their kidnapper demanded ransom.

A Nigerian, Samuel Udoetuk Wills, 28, who was arrested as a prime suspect, is still in custody.

At a press conference in Accra, the Director General of CID, Mrs Addo-Danquah, announced that the police had identified the location of the missing girls.

Families’ reaction

The spokespersons for the families said the families were hurt and disappointed that since the announcement, no communication had been made to the girls’ parents regarding the matter.

Mr Hayford said the families of the missing girls were of the view that by now the CID should have been able to at least inform and brief the parents of the girls regarding the investigation but nothing had been made.

He also said the families of the missing girls were surprised that since the issue cropped up, no government official had paid the families a visit to interact with them.

"At least if an official from the government had come to speak to the parents of the girls, they would have known without a doubt that the government sympathises with them. This is very sad," Mr Hayford said.

Child Rights’ support

The Executive Director of Child Rights International assured the families of the organisation's support and expressed the hope that the police would bring back the girls.

He also said the organisation would petition Parliament before the end of this month and also seek other options of handling the case.

Mr Appiah said as a father himself, he understood the trauma and pain the families of the girls were going through and urged them to keep hoping and trusting the police to bring closure to the case.