Priscilla Mantebea Koranchie, Priscilla Blessing Bentum and Ruth Love Quayson
Information reaching DAILY GUIDE indicates that the three girls who were kidnapped in Takoradi in the Western Region have been found.
They were reportedly transported to a BNI Clinic around the 37 Military Hospital in Accra yesterday for preliminary medical care.
Details are still sketchy, as the security agencies have been tight-lipped on the matter, but it has emerged that the three namely: Ruth Love Quayeson, 18-year-old graduate of Fijai Senior High School (SHS) in Takoradi; Priscilla Blessing Bentum, a 21-year-old student of the University of Education, Winneba; and Priscilla Korankye, 15 year-old student of Sekondi Senior High School are all safe and sound.
Sources say they were brought to Accra from Takoradi yesterday.
Incessant Pressure
There has been incessant pressure on the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to bring back the girls, and it heightened when the Director General in charge of the CID, Commissioner of Police (COP) Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah indicated at a news conference on April 2 that the police had identified the whereabouts of the three kidnapped girls.
She said: “After months of investigations together with the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), the whereabouts of the three victims are now known,” sparking heated debate over the handling of the matter by police”.
She said that they bring the girls back in collaboration with other stakeholders but later declined to give details.
Key Suspect
The CID boss said at the news conference that police investigations led to the arrest of a 28-year-old Nigerian Samuel Udoetuk Wills, who escaped from police cells in Takoradi and later re-arrested.
She said during interrogations, Udoetuk Wills disclosed that one John Nweke, also a Nigerian, was keeping the girls.
Key Issues
Priscilla Blessing Bentum, 21, was kidnapped on August 17, 2018, at Kansaworodo.
Her parents paid a ransom of GH¢4,500 to the kidnappers, but their daughter was not freed, before they lodged a complaint with the police in Takoradi, according to the police in Western Region.
The second victim, Ruth Love Quayson, 18, had just completed Fijai Senior High School in Sekondi and lived with her parents at Diabene, near Sekondi.
She was kidnapped on December 4, 2018, at Butumegyabu (BU) junction in Takoradi.
Her parents paid a ransom of GH¢1,300 to the kidnappers before they also made a report to the police.
The third victim Priscilla Mantebea Koranchie, 15, a first-year student of Sekondi College, lived with her parents at West Fijai, near Sekondi.
She was kidnapped on December 21, 2018, at a spot near Nkroful Junction.
“The parents also paid a ransom of GH¢1,000 to the kidnappers before they made a report to the police,” the Western Regional Police Commander DCOP Vincent Dedjoe had said in the midst of the confusion early this year.
Kidnappings
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.”
Demonstrations
There have been several demonstrations in the Takoradi Metropolis following what appeared to be inaction by the police to find the girls.
A group calling itself ‘Concerned Mothers Association’ entered the fray to mount pressure on the police to trace the girls.
By Melvin Tarlue