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Minister of Information, Hon. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has revealed that the operation which was carried out to rescue the two Canadian women by National Security operatives, comprising the CID, BNI, the Special Weapons and Tactics Unit of the National Council and Defence Intelligence.

He added that the operation which was carried out by the National Security operatives had no foreign assets involved as everything was done by a joint team of state security agencies.

Addressing the media on Wednesday June 12, 2019, Hon. Oppong Nkrumah said “at the end and currently, 5 Ghanaians and 3 Nigerians are in custody for this incident. One of the suspects is reported to have sustained minor injuries. Other investigations and possible arrest are still ongoing”.

 He emphasized that the victims are currently in Accra and they have been in contact with the Canadian Authorities; thus the two Canadian victims are undergoing the necessary evaluations following the traumatic incident.

“Preliminary indications that we have is that, they are fine. Our thanks go to the Ghana Police Service, particularly the CID and the Ashanti Regional Police Command. Our thanks go to Defence Intelligence, to the Bureau of National Investigations and to the Special Weapons and Tactics Unit and other units of the National Security Council Secretariat, some of which we may not mention at this point in time”, he stressed.

He further showered praises on the media for the blackout in the first hours of the incidence when the security agencies reached out to them in order to enable preliminary works to take place; thus, this led to the successful operation in Kumasi in the rescue of the two Canadian women.

“The security agencies want to urge the media, commentators and the public to avoid speculation and be circumspect in their commentary as their ongoing operations on similar matters that could be compromised depending on the kind of commentary that is put out there”, he urged.

How National Security Operatives Rescued The Two Canadian Women:

As confirmed earlier today, National Security operatives led an operation which comprises a number of security agencies to rescue the two Canadian women who were abducted in the Ashanti Region on the 4th of June.

The operation involved the CID of the Ghana Police Service, the Bureau of National Investigations, the Special Weapons and Tactics Unit of the National Security Council and Defence Intelligence. No foreign assets were involved in the operation.

Since the day of the abduction of the two Canadian women, security operatives have been working their contacts with the hope of rescuing them. Intelligence gathering efforts enabled the security agencies to zero in on persons who were associated with the incident.

At 19:00 hours on June 11, 2019 the first arrest was made in connection with this incidence. By 21:15 hours on that same day, one of the persons who is believed to be an accomplice directly involved in the incident was also arrested by the joint team running this operation.

A local Ghanaian contact who was providing harbouring for the kidnappers was apprehended around 20: 45 hours that same night, leading to the arrest of other accomplices. The holding place of the victims was subsequently surrounded just before 5:00am this morning and by 5:15am, the joint team had breached the premises with the hope of rescuing the women.

Gun shots were fired from within the premises but the brief is that it took about 25 minutes to complete this operation. At the end of the operation, the two Nigerians who were holding the women had been subdued and a third Nigerian believed to the leader of the gang was arrested later at a separate location.