Confusion Over Missing Takoradi Girls

There is confusion over the rescue of the three Takoradi girls following the breaking of the story yesterday by DAILY GUIDE.

The Ghana Police Service was busily managing the confusion that the story, which was not attributed to them, had generated yesterday.

There were expectedly calls from the headquarters of the law enforcement agency for leads to the story so they could follow up.

This was against the backdrop of the parents of the kidnapped girls threatening to descend upon the police headquarters to demand answers from the managers of the country’s internal security system.

After much anxiety, an unsigned social media report denied that the girls had been found and rescued.

Even in the terse statement of the police, the CID appeared to neither deny nor confirm whether the girls had been rescued as published earlier.

Many who followed the story did not find it difficult to recall the highlight of the press conference by Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) COP Tiwaa Addo-Danquah who said “we know where the girls are.”

She assured Ghanaians that within days the girls would be reunited with their parents.

That has aggravated the confusion spawned by the news about the rescue of the three kidnapped girls.

It was apparent that there does not exist sufficient sharing of information among players of the intelligence community in the country.

The police, in particular, were at a loss as to what was exactly happening regarding the subject, as evident from the questions they posed when they engaged at different times yesterday to find out whether there was something they could latch on to.

A story, which was not sourced to the police, could not have definitely elicited the kind of soothing response the general public sought to get under the circumstances.

The terse denial from the headquarters of the law enforcement agency was in reaction to the story by DAILY GUIDE.

The CID has not been forthcoming with information about how far they have gone about the missing girls, especially after COP Tiwaa’s wobbling disclosures about their whereabouts.

The media scene was yesterday awash with discussions about the story, a development which continues today.

In the past few months, the police have not lived up to the expectation of the public in respect of arresting situations – the story of Ahmed Hussein-Suale being a case in point.

A suspect was left off the hook by a patrol team and to date nothing has been heard from the police.

Recently, a mistaken identity led to the arrest of a 29-year-old man, whose picture was splashed on the pages of newspapers, courtesy the police.

The police have not rendered any apology even after releasing the ‘innocent’ man.

DAILY GUIDE yesterday reported that the three kidnapped Takoradi girls had been found by security agents.

Following the development, our sources said the girls were taken to a medical facility patronized by one of the intelligence bodies for examination near the 37 Military Hospital in Accra.

The conversation generated in the aftermath of the DAILY GUIDE story exposed the fault lines in the CID’s handling of the case since it made it to the media space.

While some media persons expressed worry about the dearth of updates from the CID, others pointed at ‘sheer eye service’ at the expense of the interest of the kidnapped girls.

The three rescued girls are Ruth Love Quayeson, 18-year-old graduate of Fijai Senior High School (SHS) in Takoradi; Priscilla Blessing Bentum, a 21-year-old student of the University of Education, Winneba and Priscilla Korankye, 15 year-old student of Sekondi Senior High School (SHS).