Families of girls kidnapped disappointed by police

General News of Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Source: Graphic.com.gh

2019-04-23

The families of the three girls abducted in the metropolis of Sekondi-Takoradi, in the western region, expressed their dissatisfaction with the lack of information from the police regarding the investigation of abducted girls.

They also expressed their disappointment and dissatisfaction with the pace at which the police are conducting the investigation, indicating that keeping families in the dark as to where the girls are is having a huge emotional impact on families.

"In addition to the fact that families are getting information in the media nearly two months after the director general of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), police commissioner Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, announced that the department had identified the place of the girls, nothing has been said nor heard from the police, "said spokesman for one of the families, Mr. Michael Grant Hayford.

He said that when Child Rights International (CRI), a child-centered organization, visited families during the Easter festivities.

The IRC team, led by its Executive Director, Bright Kweku Appiah, visited the families of the three girls in their respective homes and then met with family spokespersons.

After the meeting, the families appealed to the IRC to help them retrieve information from the police about the investigations that have been conducted so far on girls.

Context

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

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

On December 4, 2018, the second daughter, Ruth Love Quayson, a 18-year-old high school graduate, was also reported missing.

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

The missing girls were later confirmed as having been kidnapped after their kidnapper claimed ransom.

A Nigerian, Samuel Udoetuk Wills, 28, arrested as the main suspect, is still in custody.

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

Reaction of the families

Family spokespersons said the families were hurt and disappointed that since the announcement, no communication had been communicated to the girls' parents about it.

Mr. Hayford said that the families of the missing girls were of the opinion that the IDC would have already been able to at least inform and inform the parents of the girls of the investigation, but nothing had been done.

He also said that the families of the missing girls were amazed that since the issue was raised, no government official had visited the families to talk with them.

"At least if a government official had come to talk to the girls' parents, they would have known without a doubt that the government was sympathetic to them, which is very sad," Hayford said.

Support for the rights of the child

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

He also said that the organization would submit a petition to Parliament by the end of the month and would also look for other options to deal with the case.

Mr. Appiah said, father himself, understand the trauma and pain that girls' families were going through and urged them to continue to hope and trust the police to put an end to it. case.