The Alliance for Social Equity And Public Accountability is urging the families of the missing three Tokoradi girls to conduct a second DNA test on the retrieved human remains found despite the Police DNA text suggested that those remains match with the DNAs on the family.
In a statement copied Awake News, the Executive Director of ASEPA, Mr. Mensa Thompson said “Considering the complexities of such investigations and the possibility that DNA materials retrieved from the site could have been contaminated, plus several other conflicting accounts of the Police CID, it is important that the families to not rush in accepting the results provided by the Police.”
“It is important that the families also request for DNA samples from the bones retrieved from the Police and conduct a second private DNA test on the bones (usual referred to as a control testing) to confirm the results from the Police.” – He added
Mr. Thompson has emphasized that “The credibility of the Police has been seriously bruised on this matter considering how the case has been handled so far and it will be very irrational to accept anything from the Police without taking steps to verify whatever information they provide.”
He has since called on benevolent Ghanaians to assist the families to be able to pay for this second DNA test to bring total closure considering the cost involved in DNA text.
“Considering how expensive DNA testing is, we want to use this medium to appeal to benevolent Ghanaians to assist the families to be able to pay for this second DNA test to bring total closure to them so that they be sure of the remains the Police will give them and be able to give their daughters a befitting burial as customs requires.”
Background:
About a year ago, news boke that three girls, Ruth Abakah, Priscilla Blessing Bentum, Ruth Love Quayson and Priscilla Koranchie have been kidnapped.
Miss Abakah went missing on July 29, 2018. The second victim, Miss Priscilla Bentum went missing August 15, 2018; on December 4, 2018, Ruth Love Quayson also went missing. The disappearance of the fourth victim, Priscilla Koranchie was on December 21, 2018.
On December 22, the police were able to track the number though which some ransom had been paid, which led to the arrest of Samuel Udotek Wills to assist with investigations. Mr Wills later escape from custody on December 30, 2018, but was rearrested three days later in an uncompleted building at Nkroful, a suburb of Takoradi.
He has been convicted from escaping from lawful custody, and he was brought to the headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Police Service where upon interrogations he admitted that he together with suspects John Orji and John Shika kidnapped the young girls and sent them by road to a location in Nigeria known as ‘Baby factory’ in Anambra State. He, however, denied the knowledge of the whereabouts of Ruth Abaka.
The evaluation of this confession and other intelligence from Nigeria on the location and modus operandi of this ‘Baby factory’ culminated in an assessment by the investigative team at this stage that they had a fair idea of the location of the girls and it will be possible to bring them home.
Between April and July 2019, several surveillance operations were mounted in Onitsha, Orca, Port Harcourt and Calabar all in Nigeria. These were locations where suspects Samuel Udotek Wills mentioned at different times as places where the girls were sent and directed investigative teams with the hope of tracing and rescuing the girls.
Upon collaborations with other intelligence and investigative agents across West Africa, the second suspect John Orji was tracked and arrested at the Aflao border on June 4, 2019. During interrogations, Orji admitted knowing Udotek Wills but denied any knowledge of kidnapping. He claimed that he had met Udotek Wills to collect some monies owed him after Udotek Wills had sent him to Tamale to bring him a money ritual box.
The two suspects were put together for questioning and while Udotek Wills said he did not know where the girls where John maintained his denial of any involvement in the kidnapping of the girls. Two officials from the Nigeria National Agency for the Protection of Trafficked Persons, came to Ghana on June 17, 2019, to assist the police in their investigations. They interrogated both Samuel and Orji at the Police Headquarters, which did not yield any actionable information.
Efforts to also locate the girls in Nigeria did not yield any result by July 31, 2019. The Nigerian leads were unreliable and unreliable as at that date. On August 2, 2019, the investigations team was informed by the National Agency for the Protection of Trafficked Persons that a third suspect, Chika Nnouedem had been arrested in Abuja. In a video interrogation of the suspect, Udotek Wills identified Chika to the police as one of the accomplices.
Chika also apparently knowing Udotek Wills willing spoke with him with regards to the missing girls and in the process, Udotek Wills asked him about the girls. In a confrontational exchange between the two, Udotek Wills insisted that it was Chika and another person, Mama Soboma, had taken the girls to Nigeria.
Police CID Boss’s Press Statement:
On April 2, 2019, The Director-General of the CID, DCOP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah addressing journalists at a press conference said the police know the whereabouts of the girls but will not disclose it for their safety.
“It’s taken us over three months to even identify where the ladies are, and what we don’t want to do is do anything that will jeopardise the safety of that. So we are working very hard. All the stakeholders who are supposed to be on board are on board and hopefully, the girls will be brought back safe and sound,” DCOP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah said.
But somewhere in May 2019, the DCOP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah made a sharp uturn saying they have no idea of the whereabout the girls are and that she made the April statement only to help calm the nerve of the families.
Daily Guide newspaper’s report:
On April 24, 2019, Daily Guide, a pro-government newspaper said it has information indicating “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-Yr-old graduate of Fijai Senior Hight School in Takoradi; Priscilla Blessing Bentum, a 21-Yr-Old student of the University of Education, Winneba; and Priscilla Korankye, 15-Yr-Old student of Sekondi Senior High School are all safe and sound.”
“Sources say they were brought to Accra from Takoradi yesterday.”
Human Remains found:
On August 2, 2019, Police reported that they retrieved human remains from a septic tank on a property previously occupied by the key suspect in the kidnapping of the three Takoradi girls, Samuel Udoetuk-Wills.
The skulls were retrieved Friday night from a septic tank at Kasaworodo a suburb of Takoradi.
This followed a search in the premises by the Police with the aid of sniffer dogs.
Read ASEPA’s full statement:
16-09-2019
REQUEST FOR A SECOND DNA TEST TO CONFIRM POLICE RESULTS, ASEPA URGES FAMILIES OF MISSING GIRLS
We have received with shock news of the results of the DNA test conducted by the Police on some bones retrieved from the premises of the alleged kidnapper of the Takoradi girls.
According to the Police, the DNA samples collected from the families of the missing girls seem to match DNA materials of the bones retrieved thereby confirming that the bones retrieved are indeed the missing girls.
Considering the complexities of such investigations and the possibility that DNA materials retrieved from the site could have been contaminated, plus several other conflicting accounts of the Police CID, it is important that the families to not rush in accepting the results provided by the Police.
It is important that the families also request for DNA samples from the bones retrieved from the Police and conduct a second private DNA test on the bones (usual referred to as a control testing) to confirm the results from the Police.
The credibility of the Police has been seriously bruised on this matter considering how the case has been handled so far and it will be very irrational to accept anything from the Police without taking steps to verify whatever information they provide.
Considering how expensive DNA testing is, we want to use this medium to appeal to benevolent Ghanaians to assist the families to be able to pay for this second DNA test to bring total closure to them so that they be sure of the remains the Police will give them and be able to give their daughters a befitting burial as customs requires.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families at this difficult moment!
Signed:
Mensah Thompson
Executive Director, ASEPA
0542120628
0243019131
Cc.
Families of Missing Girls
All Media Houses
By: Efo Korsi Senyo / awakenewsroom.com