Some of the suspects on their way to the police station
The Western Regional Police Command has started taking statements from the 25 individuals who were rescued from a suspected kidnapping hideout at Effiakuma, near Takoradi.
DAILY GUIDE gathered that statements of the victims, believed to have been brought from neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire, are being taken through an interpreter.
As at the time of filing this report, five of the victims had given their statements and confirmed that they were indeed brought from Cote d’Ivoire.
They also confirmed that it was the arrested suspects who brought them to Ghana, apparently to get them a job.
It would be recalled that the 25 individuals were purportedly lured through what appeared to be a fraudulent recruitment scheme.
According to reports, many of the rescued individuals were visibly weak to move, when they were found.
The police have confirmed that they have arrested five suspects in connection with the case.
The suspects, made up of four men and one woman, were apprehended during initial police interrogation with one of the victims, a male, in his early 30s, who managed to escape captivity on Sunday, June 1, 2025.
The victim sought help from a trader in the Effiakuma Zongo area, but the trader, unable to understand the victim’s dialect, alerted a resident called Abdul Ganiyu.
Ganiyu identified the language of the victim as ‘Dyula’, which is commonly spoken in Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, and Mali.
The victim explained that he and his wife and others were lured through an alleged fraudulent recruitment scheme, and revealed where the others were being kept.
Ganiyu then reached out to the Assembly Member for Effiakuma Zongo, Hamza Mohammed Ameen Adam, and together with some concerned residents, stormed the eight-bedroom apartment near the Takoradi Technical University, where the victims were being kept.
The victims were later rescued and handed over to the police for further investigations.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi