The Chairman of the National Peace Council (NPC), Rt Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Asante, has appealed to the families of the missing Takoradi girls who are now reported dead following a DNA test to accept the reality of the situation.
The girls went missing in the Western Region between July and December of 2018.
He said while it was difficult for the families to accept the reality that they had lost their children, it was important to bring closure to the case.
“We are all praying with them that they will accept the reality and the perpetrators brought to book, so that we will have reason to say that, indeed, justice has been done,” Rt Rev. Prof. Asante told the media on the sidelines of the observance of International Day of Peace in Accra last Friday.
Report
The police last week announced that the skeletal remains of four persons retrieved from two locations in Sekondi-Takoradi in August 2019 had proved to be those of the four Takoradi girls who went missing at various locations in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis.
Forensic and DNA tests conducted by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service on the remains confirmed the identities of the skeletons to be those of the missing girls.
While the family of the fourth victim, Priscilla Koranchie, has accepted the outcome of the police DNA examination and said it would wait for further details, the other three families have rejected the report.
The three are the families of Ruth Abakah, Priscilla Bentum and Ruth Love Quayson.
The three families said they could not trust the outcome of the DNA tests, as announced by the police, and, therefore, demanded the reopening of investigations into the case.
Calm
But the Chairperson of the National Peace Council, has called for calm in order for the situation not to degenerate.
Given the recent kidnapping cases in the country, including the kidnap of people from Estonia, India and Canada, he urged the public to be vigilant.
“This is the time every individual Ghanaian must be vigilant, in the sense that the miscreants and criminals are hovering around us. We should be mindful of them and report to the police whenever we see suspicious activities around us,” Rt Rev. Prof. Asante said.
Suspects
Currently, two suspects, both Nigerians — Samuel Udeotuk-Wills and John Orji — are in police custody in connection with the kidnapping of the girls.
A third suspect — Chika John Nnodim — was arrested in Nigeria in August 2019 in connection with the case.
Udeotuk-Wills, who is said to be the mastermind of the crime, was earlier jailed for escaping from lawful custody. He is still facing other charges before a Sekondi High Court.