Missing Girls: 2 Nigerians were in kidnapping business in their country - Witness tells court

A prosecution witness, Detective Chief Inspector Dorcas Asare on Tuesday, told the Sekondi High Court One, that the two Nigerians connected with the kidnappings and murder of the four Takoradi girls, were in kidnapping business in Nigeria.

She mentioned that catalogues of phone calls established connections between the four victims and Samuel Udoetuk Wills (first accused) and John Oji (second accused).

Cross-examined by counsel for Oji, Mark Bosiah, Detective Chief Insp Asare told the court presided by Justice Richard Adjei Frempong, that in a Facebook chat on July 19, 2018, Wills asked Oji “Can you kill for money?” To which, Oji replied in the affirmative, saying “hmm, BG, yes.”

Chief Insp Asare disagreed with the counsel’s submission that Oji knew nothing about the girls, saying Wills in his caution statement, confessed same and that Oji, a salesman in his caution statement, on November 20, 2019, at the Takoradi Central Police station, claimed that Wills in 2017, demanded 110, 000 Naira to secure him a job, which failed.

The prosecution witness said Oji told the investigators that he came to Ghana on December 2, 2018, to collect his money, but, after exchanges, he went back home, but he was arrested at the Benin -Togo border on June 4, 2019, on his third coming.

Detective Chief Inspector Asare said the second accused admitted that Wills was involved in kidnappings while in Nigeria and later escaped to Ghana.

She said that Oji knew the victims and was connected to the kidnappings and catalogued calls from Wills showed that he chatted with Priscilla Blessing Bentum, his girlfriend.

Chief Insp Asare told the court that on August 17, 2018, Wills claimed that he was not in his house at Kansaworod when Priscilla visited the place and rather met Oji, who entertained her and, later, kidnapped the girl.

“Again, Wills has been calling Ruth-Love Quayson, another victim on the Tigo network and used same to call victim Priscilla Bentum. Wills admitted calling Oji and the video recordings in court showed that” she said.

Chief Insp Asare stressed: “On March 13, 2019, second accused sent am SMS message stating “I am getting married on April 20, 2019. Again, on December 22, 2018, when Samuel Wills was arrested, he mentioned John Oji’s connection with the kidnappings. Additionally, the second accused sent a message to Wills which read ‘please call me.’”

She emphasised that a foreign phone number belonging to Oji showed that he knew about the case in court and that investigators confirmed the same voice on the phone he used to call the first accused and also the conversation with Ruth Love Quayson.

In all these, the prosecution witness said, Oji’s name appeared and that he admitted the same.

Wills, the trader, and Oji, salesman, have pleaded not guilty to eight counts of conspiracy and murder.

The prosecution, led by the Chief State Attorney, Patience Klinogo, recalled that between July and December 2018, the accused were involved in the kidnapping of four girls, Priscilla Blessing Bentum, 21, at Kansaworodo, Ruth Love Quayson, 18, Priscilla Mantebea, 15 and Ruth Abeka, 18, at different locations in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis.

The accused, who demanded ransoms from the victims’ parents, were later arrested in 2019 to assist the police in investigations.

Ms Klinogo told the court that the police forensic results of human remains found at Kansaworodo in Takoradi proved 99.99 per cent confirmation that they were the remains of the four Takoradi kidnapped girls,  hence their charge.