Ruth Abakah, 19 years, went missing at Diabene, a suburb of Takoradi on July 29, 2018. Despite having taken a GH¢300 ransom money, the SHS graduate who read General Arts was not released by her kidnapper(s).
Priscilla Blessing Bentum, 21, a third-year student of the University of Education, Winneba, was kidnapped on August 17, 2018 at Kansaworodo.
Ruth Love Quayson, 18, a Fijai Senior High School leaver in Sekondi was kidnapped on December 4, 2018 at Butumegyabu junction in Takoradi, and, Priscilla Mantebea Koranchie, 15, a first-year student of Sekondi College, went missing on December 21, 2018 at a spot near Nkroful junction.
First suspect arrested
Through efforts of the police, the key suspect, 28-year-old Samuel Udoetuk-Wills, was first arrested a day after the kidnap of the fourth and last girl, Priscilla Koranchie in December 2018.
He was arrested by the Bureau of National Investigations in an uncompleted building at Kansaworado, a suburb of Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis but managed to escape from the Takoradi Central police cells on December 30, 2018, at about 4:50 pm.
Seven police officers on duty during the escape were directed to reproduce the suspect within 10 days after residents accused them of complicity.
Sam Wills was rearrested 5 days later and remanded to 18-months in prison by a Takoradi Magistrate court in the Western Region.
Police plead for time to investigate
At a presser, Thursday, 14 February 2019, the then Inspector General of Police, Asante-Apeatu appealed to the aggrieved families to give the police ample time to find the girls.
He said: “They shouldn’t give us some timelines but rather they should cooperate with us, the police need time to do these investigations”.
Assurances
The Minister of Interior, Ambrose Dery, in March 2019, assured the families of the kidnapped Takoradi girls that the police were working assiduously to rescue them.
“On the missing girls, the police are on top of the matter. It will come to a time that as a country we take some decisions as to what we want, our privacy [issues]. We should be able to use technology to track where a person is calling from but are we prepared to give up our privacy?”.
The new Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, also, in April, gave the assurance that very soon, the three girls kidnapped at the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis would be brought back to their respective families.
“The Police are working very hard and they have done a lot of work with regards to finding our girls.”
The Criminal Investigations Department (CID), revealed that it is getting closer to finding three kidnapped girls. “We know where the girls are,” the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department DCOP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah told reporters at a press briefing.
Her comments attracted a backlash from sections of society. Following this, she noted that her comments were misunderstood. According to her, she ‘wanted to give the families hope’ by that announcement, conceding the location of the girls remained unknown.
Predictions got into the picture. Whilst some prophets pronounced doom on these girls, some projected hope; revelations from their side indicated that the girls will be found.
Prophet Reindolph Oduro Gyebi, popularly known as the Eagle Prophet, revealed, in February, that it would be totally impossible to get them back. He revealed that the young ladies had been divided into two groups. He added that in the spiritual realm, he saw some of the kidnapped young girls in Burkina Faso and others in Cote d'Ivoire.
The Founder and Leader of the Glorious Word and Power Ministry International, Reverend Isaac Owusu Bempah, on the other hand, was optimistic that the girls could be found.
According to him, he just had to be dared to give out the information he had acquired with his spiritual eyes.
“I know the whereabouts of the girls. If you dare me, just allow the President to call on me and ask me about their whereabouts and I will gladly tell him...Some things are not only papers and writing but spiritual...”.
A second suspect, John Oji, was arrested through collaborated efforts of the Togo and Ghana police on June 4, 2019. He was picked up in Togo after a manhunt by the police following the kidnaps.
On June 12, Oji was arraigned at the Sekondi – Takoradi High Court II for conspiracy to kidnap and kidnapping.
The Police in Ghana was informed by Nigerian authorities that a third suspect, Chika had been arrested in Abuja.
Decomposed bodies found
On August 2, there was news about the discovery of some decomposed bodies in a septic tank at the residence of Sam Wills, the main suspect involved in the kidnappings.
The police, led by the Acting IGP, following this discovery, visited families of all the missing girls to acquire samples of DNA for testing to ascertain if the bodies belonged to the girls.
The Acting Inspector General of Police, James Oppong Boanuh, at a press briefing Monday, September 16, confirmed that the remains found at the residence of Sam Wills in August were indeed those of the missing girls; Ruth Abakah, Priscilla Kuranchie, Ruth Love Quayson, and Priscilla Blessing Bentum.
The four girls went missing at different times in 2018