Family Of 4th Missing Girl Say Police Helped Them Pay Ransom To Kidnappers

Family members of the fourth kidnapped girl in Takoradi say the police officers at Kojokrom assisted them in the payment of ransom to the kidnappers of their missing daughter.

The family members say they are therefore surprised that their daughter has not been rescued a year on.

The missing girl, Ruth Abakah has been missing at Diabene, a suburb of the Takoradi in the Western Region for over a year now.

This brings to four the total number of girls missing in the region.

Grandmother of the victim, Veronica Hamza, in a Citi News interview said:

“We reported to the police that we couldn't find my granddaughter. They took us to Sekondi but the back and forth was just too much athough they said, they were in search for her. Later we received a call from a group of people who were demanding GHc35,000 before they could release our relative. So, we reported this again to the police because we suspected it was kidnapping.”

She added that;

“The police officers took all our statements then the next day the guys were just calling us and the Police at Kojokrom were bargaining with them. Finally, they came to a conclusion that whatever we have, we can give it to them. And the police told us that, if that is the case, we should give them [the kidnappers] something, maybe my granddaughter will come back.”

An older sister of the missing girl, Matilda also narrated how the family made some payments to the suspected kidnappers to get their relative released but to no avail.

“The one who spoke to me said, they have used my sister's name to register for MTN Mobile money so we should make the payment through that number which we did. At the time, I was working at MTN, so I gave the number to my boss and we realised that they used my sister's National Health insurance Card for the registration. So that was how we were convinced that she was in their custody. We have so far paid GHc300 to them,” she added.

The family say they are heartbroken and are demanding full closure on the matter from the police.

“We want the police to be quick about their DNA tests so that we can be comfortable with our lives. Right now, we are downhearted”, she said.

A fourth set of human parts was on Wednesday discovered at Nkroful new site at Takoradi as part of investigations into the missing Takoradi girls case.

The remains were discovered at an uncompleted building where the main suspect; Samuel Udutoek Wills was re-arrested when he escaped from police custody in December 2018.

Police have said it will take them four weeks to complete DNA test on the parts to ascertain whether or not those are the parts of the missing girls in question.

After initially refusing police request for DNA tests to be conducted on their relations, the families of the three kidnapped Takoradi girls have now agreed to cooperate with the Police.

---Citinewsroom