Pressure group, Youth for Accountable Governance (YoFAG) has alleged that DNA report released by the Ghana Police Service on the three Takoradi missing girls was “cooked” to bring a closure to the matter.
According to the group, the police administrations’ conduct before the test was conducted proved that “they were either fed up with investigating the issue and had to dust it off or wanted to ease pressure on the government by returning a verdict that the girls were dead.”
Addressing a news conference in Accra, Communication Director for YoFAG, Elikem Kotoko bemoaned the lack of seriousness and professionalism in the handling of the case, adding that ‘if we have a serious government committed to ensure professionalism is adhered to, the CID boss and her men would not be playing with the emotions of the families of the girls.”
While commiserating with the family of the girls, Elikem Kotoko said “ YoFAG would like to state on record that our Ghana Police Service has earned for themselves the most insensitive, unprofessional and compromised state institution of our time considering the way and manner in which they have successfully hurried to bring closure to this case leaving every citizen worried and in absolute doubt about news that the four girls who got missing at different locations at different times mysteriously were abducted by same kidnapper (syndicate) and with their remains thrown into a septic tank.”
“How many skulls were found in that septic tank, how long does it take for a body to decompose under the circumstance and are the Police able to tell us how long those skeletons have been in the septic. Let us not rule out the possibility of the Police compromising this entire process by even being accessories to bringing this investigations to a closure out of the frustration and the dead-end that it appears all their investigations have led them to. Ghanaians even believe that those skeletons DO NOT match that of the missing girls and together with the families will require further answers and a much better and professional external DNA test, independent of the state; how sure are we that those skeletons were not thrown into the septic by the Police themselves when they had to only choose the night to make this discovery?,” he quizzed.
The Takoradi kidnapped girls case has for more than year been the most topical issue discussed in the media with several people slamming the Ghana Police Service for their poor handling of the case since its inception to its conclusion.
Following the discovery of human remains from a septic tank in a house previously occupied by the Nigerian kidnap suspect in Kanswrodo that have been confirmed to be that of the kidnapped girls, there have been calls for the head of the CID boss after she earlier told the media “We know where the girls are,” at a news conference in Accra.
While some believe the outcome of the DNA test would bring finality to the issue, YoFAG is backing calls for another test to be conducted by independent external experts.
“YoFAG, will also like to join in the general call by many citizens that a second, new and externally private DNA be conducted to confirm or otherwise the report being alleged by the Police. This is within the rights of the families who have expressed so much doubt over the entire process considering the conduct of the Police and state officials,” Elikem Kotoko stated.