Police rescue abducted children

Police at Tepa-Abotoase in the Oti Region are investigating circumstances that led to the kidnapping of two girls who were later found tied in an uncompleted building near the Zongo community.

The Worawora District Police Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mr Simmons Amenu, who confirmed the story to The Chronicle, said that the rescued girls have been reunited with their family.

According to DSP Mr Amenu, information gathered by police was that on Monday 22nd July this year, the father of the two girls, Helen, 8, and Felicia, 6, sent a consignment of shea nuts to their grandmother who they live with at Tepa-Abotoase.

The children, police gathered, after picking the commodity from the landing bank, went to sell it for GH¢35 to a woman living close to the Mosque.

Back home, the grandmother, unsatisfied with the price, asked the girls to refund the amount to the buyer and in return collect the shea nuts.

At about 0630hrs on Tuesday, July 23, Helen and Felicia went to return the money to the buyer and took away one parcel of the nuts.

As they went for the last one, and whilst fetching them into buckets, two unidentified men reportedly grabbed them from behind, covered their heads and faces simultaneously with clothes, and took them to an uncompleted building about 500 metres away.

Rags were forced in their mouths, they were blindfolded, and tied with their clothes, and left alone.

At about 0800hrs, some female pupils were on their way to school when one of them in an attempt to pass urine spotted the two helpless girls in the structure.

The school pupils run back to the community and raised the alarm, leading to police and a naval detachment at Tepa-Abotoase rushing to rescue the weak-looking girls.

It was said that since the police had no vehicle at the station, the navy personnel, led by Chief Petty Officer Class One (CPO1) Abotsie Michael, offered the vehicle which was used to transport Helen and Felicia to the health centre for medical attention, after which their family was traced and the children sent home.

DSP Mr Amenu went on that police was following a few leads which may lead to the arrest of the perpetrators.