Disclosing info on missing Taadi girls dangerous – AG

The Attorney-General, Gloria Akuffo, says it is wrong for the investigating authorities to have disclosed information about the whereabouts of the three missing girls from Takoradi.  

That information, which was put in the public domain by the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Police Service, DCOP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, could put the lives of the girls in danger, Ms. Akuffo iindicated.  

“We know where the girls are,” Maame Tiwaa told reporters at a news conference on April 2. While confident of wrapping up the saga, the CID boss urged patience and assured the public “they are safe…very soon they will be brought back home.”

Read also: Ghana requests US, UK assistance to find missing Taadi girls

Then, families of the missing girls questioned why the police failed to disclose the information to them before going public.

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

The main suspect in the kidnapping, Samuel Udoetuk-Wills is currently before the Takoradi Magistrate Court after he escaped from jail in December 2018 following his first arrest.

Related: #BringBackOurTaadiGirls: The Takoradi kidnappings – The story so far

But speaking Thursday, April 25, on Joy FM’s Personality Profile, the Attorney-General noted once news reaches the captors of the girls that their whereabouts had been traced, they would relocate.   

“That signals those who have them and they could change their location,” she told host, Lexis Bill.

She added: “You could even endanger their lives…[and] I find it even regrettable that the information went out that they have been found.”

Girls found?

On Wednesday, the Daily Guide Newspaper reported that the girls had been found and were receiving medical treatment at an unnamed health facility in Accra.

But the Police administration has denied reports.

In a statement on its official Facebook page, the Service said, “the attention of the Police Administration has been drawn to a report in the Daily Guide edition of Wednesday, April 24, 2019, titled ‘T’di Girls Rescued’ and wish to state that the report is false.”

The police in their press statement again, assured the families and the public that “we are working tirelessly with partner agencies to rescue the kidnapped girls.”

They add in the statement that liaison officers in Takoradi have been assigned to coordinate information between the police and families of the kidnapped girls and encourage family leadership to cooperate with the assigned officers.

“Journalists, Publishers, Editors and Producers are hereby reminded to desist from publishing news without verification from authorised Police sources,” urged the statement signed by Police Public Affairs Director, DSP Shiela Buckman.