Samuel Udoetuk Wills
Hell broke loose at the Sekondi High Court yesterday when the father of one of the Takoradi kidnapped girls, Francis Bentum, pounced on the suspected Nigerian kidnapper, Samuel Udoetuk Wills, in the courtroom after the proceedings.
The visibly angry father of Pricilla Blessing Bentum took the action after the court adjourned the case against the key suspect and his alleged accomplice, John Oji, to February 5, 2020.
The prosecution had told the court that they were expecting an update on investigations from the police by close of this week to inform amendments to their fact sheet.
The two Nigerian suspects in the case, Udoetuk Wills, 28, and John Oji, 29, have been hauled before a Sekondi High Court and charged with six counts of conspiracy and kidnapping and have since pleaded not guilty.
John Oji, who was alleged to have conspired with Samuel Wills to escape with the girls, was arrested in neighbouring Togo through a special operation by the security agencies.
It would be recalled that at the last court sitting last year, the prosecution indicated that they were yet to receive the docket on the full findings regarding the four Takoradi girls’ kidnapping case, including a DNA result, to enable them to make an amendment to the charge sheet.
When the case was called yesterday, a State Attorney, Adelaide Kobire Wood, prayed the court to adjourn the case to enable them to receive some documents from the investigator in the case and the presiding judge, Hannah Taylor, obliged and adjourned the case to February 5.
Mr. Bentum, who was infuriated by the frequent adjournment of the kidnapping case, stood up after the proceedings and attacked Udoetuk Wills in the courtroom.
The police, however, managed to swiftly whisk away the two suspects.
In September 2019, the Ghana Police Service announced that the four missing girls in Takoradi were dead.
The announcement was made by then acting and now Inspector-General of Police, James Oppong-Boanuh, at a press conference after a DNA test on the skeletal remains of the girls retrieved from some parts of the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis was concluded.
The girls — Ruth Quayson, Priscilla Blessing Bentum, Priscilla Koranchie and Ruth Abekah — were believed to have been kidnapped between August 2018 and January 2019.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi