AG yet to see Tadi girls’ DNA docket

• Posted on December 12, 2019December 12, 2019
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The Office of the Attorney General is yet to receive the docket on the full findings regarding the four Takoradi girls’ kidnapping case, including the DNA result, to enable it to give official advice.

The two Nigerian suspects in the case, Sam Udoetuk Wills, 28, and John Oji, 29, have been hauled before a Sekondi High Court and charged with six counts of conspiracy to commit a crime to wit, kidnapping and kidnapping, but the two pleaded not guilty.

The high-profile suspects were brought to court yesterday amid tight security.

During court proceedings, a State Attorney, Adelaide Kobiri-Woode, indicated that steps to amend the charges had not been completed.

She also said that a new test had been conducted about three weeks ago but did not tell the court the kind of test that was done.

The prosecutor then pleaded with the court to adjourn the case to enable the investigators to complete their work.

The Presiding Judge, Hanna Taylor, subsequently adjourned the case to January 22, 2020 to allow the prosecution to be furnished with the full findings in the case to enable the State Attorney to amend the charge sheet.

After the proceedings when journalists approached the prosecutor to know exactly what the case might be, she declined to comment.

The main suspect in the kidnapping, Sam Udoetuk Wills, was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment for escaping from cells in December 2018 following his arrest.

John Oji, who was alleged to have conspired with Samuel Wills to escape with the girls, was arrested in neighbouring Togo through a special operation by the security agencies.

In September this year, the Ghana Police Service announced that the four missing girls in Takoradi were dead.

The announcement was made by then acting and now Inspector General of Police, James Oppong-Boanuh, at a press conference after a DNA test on the skeletal remains of the girls retrieved from some parts of the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis was concluded.

The girls — Ruth Quayson, Priscilla Blessing Bentum, Priscilla Koranchie and Ruth Abekah — were believed to have been kidnapped between August 2018 and January 2019.

From Emmanuel Opoku, Sekondi