Speaking to a gathering at Bawdie-Dompim in the Amenfi West District last Wednesday as part of his tour of the Western Region, he assured the affected families and the nation that everything would be done to rescue them.

He said the security agencies were working with all seriousness, albeit on the quiet, and expressed optimism that the efforts would pay off.

“We are not sleeping on the three missing young women. It is important to note that those involved are wicked and crafty people and the team is working to rescue them,” President Akufo-Addo said.

“Because we did not come out to say or outline what strategies we have, people are speculating and saying that we have forgotten about the children or we are sleeping. No, it’s not possible; we are not sleeping and nobody will sleep on it,” he added.

Crafty criminals

Expatiating on the matter, President Akufo-Addo said the three kidnapped girls were Ghanaians who had to be rescued or protected like any other Ghanaians.

“If any despicable thing happens, as it has happened to the three girls, the government will be there to marshal its forces, locate them and rescue them, and that will be done in the case of the girls,” he said.

The President said the criminals who engaged in such acts were crafty and would always be looking for information on what the investigation team was doing in order to outwit them. Therefore, it was not everything that would be communicated or put in the open.

The case

Between August and December 2018, three cases of alleged kidnapping were reported in the Western Region and the victims are yet to be found.

In all the three cases, the police established that the kidnapper struck acquaintances with the victims for some time before moving into action.

The police said the kidnapper contacted the victims several times through the mobile phone. He promised the first and the second victims jobs, while he promised the third victim a mobile phone.

The first victim, Priscilla Blessing Bentum, 21, was kidnapped at Kansaworodo on August 17, 2018; while the second victim, Ruth Love Quayson, 18, was kidnapped at the Butumegyabu Junction, popularly known as the BU Junction in Takoradi, on December 4, last year, with the third, Priscilla Mantebea Koranchie,15, a first-year student of the Sekondi College (SEKCO) who resided at West Fijai with her parents, being kidnapped at a location near the Nkroful Junction on December 4, last year.

A day after the third victim was kidnapped, the police, through intensive investigations, arrested Samuel Udoetuk Wills, a 28-year-old Nigerian, from his hideout on the outskirts of Kansaworodo.

He has since been in custody after making some appearances in court.

Families not satisfied

But the families of the victims were not satisfied with President Akufo-Addo’s explanation.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic yesterday, Mr Michael Hayford, who speaks for the families, said the President’s comments were not consoling enough, since he failed to include the families in his planned tour of the region.

He said it was surprising that the Number One man of the land failed to visit the families to give them the words of assurance and rather chose to speak on it far away from where the families live.

Mr Hayford said if it was good for the President to visit a chief who had been hospitalised as a result of alleged assault on him by some people, then it was even more necessary for him to visit the families of the three young women.

He said the families were not against the President’s visit to the hospital, but ignoring the families and going to another part of the region to mention the matter did not match his claim of not sleeping on the issue.

“It’s been almost a year now and we the families had expected the President to not just pass comments but physically come to us to offer words of hope,” he said.

“The fact must also be told that no member of the families is telling the President that he is sleeping,” he added.

He said aside from the President’s inability to include them in his itinerary, even the Western Regional Coordinating Council did not consider it worthy to deal with the families.