THE PRIVATE hostel where the two kidnapped Canadian women were lodging prior to their abduction has been closed down for operating illegally.
Officials of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) in the Ashanti Region, assisted by police, yesterday locked up the hostel, which has not registered to provide accommodation in accordance with the law.
The Ashanti Regional Manager of the GTA, Peter Theophilus Acheampong, said the facility does not meet the requirements of LI 2238 and 2239 that talk about how enterprises in the accommodation, food beverage and entertainment industry can operate.
He warned members of the public not to patronise the services of the hostel since it has several security breaches, including lack of CCTV cameras and a security guard to protect and safeguard patrons.
Police Hopeful
Police in the Ashanti Region remain hopeful in solving one of the region’s most notorious kidnapping involving two Canadian female students on a youth development programme in the country after a visit by the Inspector-General of Police, David Asante-Apeatu, and some foreign security experts.
Lauren Patricia Catherine Tilley, 19, and Bailey Jordan Chitty, 20, were abducted on June 4, 2019, in Kumasi while returning to their hostel from a youth development programme organised by Youth Challenge International.
Despite a huge manhunt and the help from the Canadian High Commission and other security experts, the two ladies have still not been located or their captors caught, seven days on.
But the police are confident the students, who were working as volunteers in Ghana for the international development organisation, will be found and reunited with their families.
Last Tuesday, at the Asokwa Four-Junction area, Lauren, Bailey and a third person told their colleagues they were going to their hostel at Nhyiaeso around the Royal Gulf Club.
Their colleagues and friends never saw them again, with their disappearance sparking one of the biggest police operations in Kumasi against the backdrop of recent kidnappings in the country.
DAILY GUIDE learnt that the next few days, cars were stopped at police checkpoints in the night, and law enforcement officers searched places to see if the abductors and the captives could be found.
It is not clear who is responsible for kidnappings, which have become frequent lately amid tensions between police and the National Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, over his leaked tape about calculated plans to kidnap people to make the government unpopular.
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