One of the witnesses in the Takoradi girls kidnapping and murder case has confirmed that Priscilla Mantebea Koranchie, one of the four victims killed, was a friend to the first accused person, Samuel Udoetuk Wills, a Nigerian.
The witness, Esther Oppong, a 17-year-old student, told the Sekondi High Court presided over by Justice Richard Adjei-Frimpong that she once advised her deceased friend to be wary of the accused.
Led in evidence by the Chief State Attorney, Patience Klinogo, the second prosecution witness said she helped her mother sell ‘waakye’ around the vicinity where the suspect used to stay and even said that Samuel Wills used to buy food from them.
She said whenever the alleged kidnapper came to buy ‘waakye’ from her mother, he would be speaking in the Nigerian accent and added that the last time she set her eyes on the accused person was when he came to buy food and did not pay for it.
She said on December 20, 2018, she and her friend (Priscilla) went for a Carols Night service at their former school.
She told the court that before leaving for the programme, Priscilla told her that the Nigerian who had been buying ‘waakye’ from her mother was her friend and had promised to buy her (Priscilla) a mobile phone.
“But I told Priscilla that even though Wills was her friend, he was still a stranger and so she should not go for the phone and Priscilla agreed,” she added.
She said the following day she went to visit Priscilla at her house but met some young boys who told her she was not at home.
She said later two brothers of Priscilla came to her house to ask for the whereabouts of Priscilla.
According to the witness, in the course of the conversation, the brothers were getting several calls on their phones “and it was then that they told me Priscilla Koranchie had been kidnapped.”
She said after the suspect was arrested, Priscilla’s father asked her to accompany him to the police station, adding “at the police station, I identified Samuel Wills as the one who used to buy ‘waakye’ from my mother’s joint.”
Cross-Examination
During a brief cross-examination, counsel for the suspects, Mark Bosia of Legal Aid Board, asked the witness whether she was aware Priscilla went for the phone from the suspect, and she answered in the negative.
Two Nigerians — Samuel Udoetuk Wills and John Oji — have been accused of murdering the four missing girls in Takoradi after kidnapping them. But both have pleaded not guilty.
Sitting continues on Wednesday, September 2.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Sekondi