Court to deliver judgement in Takoradi kidnapped girls case today

The Secondi High Court will Friday, March 5, 2021, deliver judgement in the case in which two persons have been accused of kidnapping and killing four girls in Takoradi in the Western Region.

This follows the submission of no case by defence lawyers of the two Nigerian suspects Samuel Udotek Wills and John Orji.

The deceased, Ruth Abakah, 19, Priscilla Blessing Bentum, 21, Ruthlove Quaison, 18, and Priscilla Mantebea Kuranchie, 15, were captured at Kansawrado and Nkroful Junction between July and August 2018.

After months of fruitless search for the ladies, on January 4, 2019, relatives, friends and some residents staged a demonstration demanding justice for the girls.

This compelled the Western Regional Police Commander, DCOP Benson Redeemer Dedzo hold a first and official press conference during which he gave details on how the kidnappings happened.

The kidnapping of the girls became a national issue dominating discussions in the media.

Subsequently, the then CID Boss, Maame Yaa Tiwa Addo Dankwa in a press conference in Accra on 2nd April 2019, assured the families that together with the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) they knew where the girls were and that they were safe and very soon will be brought back home.

However, that promise was never fulfilled causing the families of the girls to accuse her of deception.

Police then stepped up their investigation which later led to the discovery of bones of the girls in a septic tank in the house of the lead suspect, Samuel Udotek Wills.

DNA analysis carried out on the bones confirmed that they were indeed the remains of the girls confirming they were not alive.