Samuel Wills
The Western Regional Police Command has re-arrested Samuel Udoetuk-Wills, the 28-year-old suspected Nigerian kidnapper, who escaped from the custody of the Takoradi Police on December 30, 2018.
According to the police, Samuel Udoetuk-Wills was re-arrested in an uncompleted building located between Kansaworodo and Nkroful in Sekondi-Takoradi at about 1:00am on Friday.
DAILY GUIDE gathered that the suspect, in an attempt to escape again, head-butted one of the policemen but was finally overpowered.
DSP Olivia Ewurabena Adiku, Western Regional Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), described the recapturing of the suspect as welcoming.
She was hopeful the suspect, who is believed to belong to a syndicate kidnapping young women in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis, would cooperate with police to locate and free the rest of the victims.
The Western Regional Police PRO told DAILY GUIDE that upon interrogation, Samuel Wills mentioned that one John, a Nigeria residing in Accra, as a member of the syndicate.
“So the Regional Police Commander asked that the suspect be sent to the said location in Accra to arrest the said John,” DSP Adiku said.
Prior to the recapture of the suspect, seven police personnel, who were on duty at the Takoradi Central Police Station at the time the Nigerian suspected kidnapper escaped, were given 10 days to produce the alleged kidnapper or face the full rigour of the law.
The suspect’s escape from police custody also angered some residents in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis and relatives of victims, who threatened to picket at the Central Police Station to demand answers over the incident.
The Nigerian suspect was arrested and remanded in police custody by a court in Takoradi but managed to escape from police cells.
He was arrested to assist in investigations into the mysterious kidnapping of young women in Sekondi-Takoradi.
DAILY GUIDE gathered that Samuel Udoetuk was arrested by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) at his hideout in an uncompleted building at Kansaworado in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis.
He was later handed over to the police in Takoradi.
The suspect, who was to reappear before the court on January 9, 2019, escaped from the police cells on December 30, 2018 at about 4:50pm.
According to a police source, the suspect managed to escape after using an implement to cut the iron rods put there to ensure ventilation in the cells.
DSP Olivia Ewurabena Adiku pointed out that investigations into the case were underway to establish the circumstances under which he escaped.
The suspect, who is believed to be behind most of the kidnappings in Sekondi-Takoradi in August last year, was said to have been cooperating with the police to locate one of the victims.
It would be recalled that in August last year residents of Sekondi-Takoradi were terrified following the alleged kidnapping of two young girls within three days.
The first incident happened on Wednesday, August 15, 2018, when a 16-year-old senior high school (SHS) student was kidnapped about 100 metres from her house at New Site near Takoradi.
A day after the first girl was discovered, a 21-year-old woman was also kidnapped at Nkroful Junction in Sekondi-Takoradi.
According to the father, “my daughter called me on that fateful day (August 17) sounding very agitated and screaming “dad” repeatedly after which the line dropped and the phone put off.”
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi