Remain calm; Child Rights Int’l appeals to Ghanaians after discovery of skeletons

Child Rights International (CRI), a child-centred organisation, has called on Ghanaians, especially the families of the three abducted Takoradi girls, to remain calm as they wait for the police to carry out forensic and DNA tests to determine the identities of the human remains discovered in a cesspit.

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a self-replicating material present in nearly all living organisms as the main constituent of chromosomes. It is the carrier of genetic information.

It determines the particular structure and functions of every cell and is responsible for characteristics being passed on from parents to their children. This is how its analysis helps with authentic information that establishes incontrovertible blood relationships of persons.

Broaden scope, involve families

The organisation has also called on the police not to rely mainly on the discovered human remains to cut down their investigations concerning the whereabouts of the missing girls.

A statement signed and issued by the Executive Director of CRI, Mr Bright Appiah, said: "Now is the time for the police to open their tentacles wide and engage the relevant bodies to ascertain the identities of the human remains believed to be those of the missing girls.”

It recommended that the police should not sideline or ignore the participation of the families of the missing girls in their investigations.

Background

At Kansaworodo, a suburb of Takoradi in the Western Region, last Friday night, the police retrieved some skeletons believed to be those of the missing Takoradi girls.

The remains were retrieved from a cesspit linked to an uncompleted building which was previously occupied by one of the accused persons in the case, Samuel Udeotuk-Willis.

A team of investigators from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service found the remains upon a lead they picked up.
Following the discovery, the families of the three missing Takoradi girls called for an independent DNA test to determine whether or not the remains were those of their missing children.

The Spokesperson for the families, Mr Michael Hayford Acquah, said the news had thrown the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis, especially Kansaworodo, into a state of shock.

The three girls had been missing for close to a year, with the first incident of kidnapping having been reported in August last year and the remaining two in December last year.

The missing girls are Priscilla Blessing Bentum, 21, last seen on August 17, 2018; 18-year-old Ruth Love Quayson, last seen on December 4, 2018, and 16-year-old Priscilla Mantebea Koranchie, last seen on December 21, 2018.

Unacceptable

The statement from CRI described as unacceptable the manner in which the police were engaging the families in the investigations.

It said no matter how the issue was, the families of the missing girls should have participated in the investigative process, indicating that it was unfair for them to have heard the news in the media.

"Ignoring the participation of the family in the process of the investigation is a disaster. The acceptance of the outcome of the result of the investigations of the remains of the three girls will largely depend on the level of engagement with the families," it said.

It said its checks with the families revealed that none was consulted nor involved in the operation, not even after the operation.
It said the organisation would continue to follow the case until the final result came out.