Tarkwa ‘kidnapped’ girl found

Barely 24 hours after 15 persons suspected to be behind the kidnapping of the three young women in the Western Region had been rounded up in the Eastern Region and sent to Accra, the first-year student of Tarkwa Senior High School, who was also feared kidnapped, has been found.

DSP Olivia Ewurabena Adiku, Western Regional Police Public Relations Officer, confirmed to DAILY GUIDE that the 21-year-old Home Economics student, Augustina Ndaago, was found somewhere at Kaneshie in Accra yesterday.

She indicated that the student was subsequently sent to the headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in Accra for further interrogation.

The Regional Police PRO declined to state how she was found and whether or not the alleged kidnapper had also been arrested.

Already, DAILY GUIDE has gathered information that the student was found alone at Kaneshie and was being interrogated to know the location of her alleged captor.

It is believed that two other girls from Huni Valley Senior High School in the Western Region are also in the custody of the alleged kidnapper.

Augustina Ndaago, who hails from the Upper West Region, was seen in the school last Wednesday after she filled an exeat form to visit her parents in the Prestea Huni Valley District of the region.

She neither got to the parents’ house nor reported back to the school.

The suspicion that she might have been kidnapped was premised on a claim by Augustina’s brother that some unknown persons called and told him they had kidnapped her.

A statement signed by the Headmistress of the school, Paulina Manu, noted that on Wednesday, January 23, 2019, the form one student was issued an exeat from the Deputy Senior Housemistress to go to Prestea where her mother resides.

According to the housemistress, in the evening, Augustina’s mother called to report that her daughter had not arrived home.

The headmistress stated that the following day, Augustina’s brother called the housemistress to inform her that a supposed kidnapper had sent him a text message that the student, together with two others, had been kidnapped and were in their custody.

“Upon hearing this, a report was made at the Tarkwa Police Station for investigations to be conducted”, the statement indicated.

Nigerian Kidnapper’

In a related development, the Takoradi Magistrate Court yesterday could not continue hearing the trial of the prime suspect in the recent kidnapping cases in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis.

That was because the 28-year-old Nigerian suspect, Samuel Udoetuk Wills, who is believed to belong to a syndicate that kidnaps young women in the metropolis, was not in court.

According to the prosecutor, Inspector Bernard Ahensan, the suspect was taken from the Sekondi Prisons to Accra over the weekend and could not arrive in the metropolis on time for the court.

The suspect escaped from the custody of the Takoradi Police on December 30, 2018 and was re-arrested in an uncompleted building located between Kansaworodo and Nkroful in Sekondi-Takoradi at about 1:00am on Friday, January 4, 2019.

He has therefore been charged with three counts of escaping from lawful custody, causing unlawful damage and resisting arrest.

He pleaded not guilty to all the charges and the court presided over by Michael Ampadu remanded him in prison custody until yesterday.

At the last court sitting, Samuel Udoetuk Wills, in his caution statement, revealed how he outwitted the police to escape.

Detective Inspector Austin Adjei had read the caution statement of the suspect, giving blow-by-blow account of how the 28-year-old suspected kidnapper escaped from cell.

Per the statement, the suspect’s friend identified only as Kwesi visited him at the police charge office on December 26, 2018, after his arrest and again on Saturday, December 29, 2018, at about 4pm when he (Kwesi) threw two small hacksaw blades through the window behind the cell which the suspect used to cut the iron rods and escaped.

According to the suspect, the said Kwesi also gave him oil to aid the escape.

The suspect claimed he cut the iron rods on Sunday, December 30, 2018 and escaped from the cells few minutes after 6pm.