The assistance of US and UK agencies, FBI and Scotland Yard respectively, are being relied on to help find the missing Takoradi girls, Interior Minister, Ambrose Dery, has disclosed.

He told Joy News’ Kojo Yankson in an interview that it has become necessary to seek support from the international bodies to augment what is already being done by authorities here on the investigations.

“We have had to bring in some foreign support in areas that we think we need strengthening,” Mr Dery said.

It has been 222 days since Priscilla Blessing Bentum, the first of the three females believed to have been kidnapped in Takoradi disappeared.

The second, Ruth Love Quayson has been gone for 113 days whilst the third, Priscilla Mantebea Koranchie has been missing for 96 days.

The police have assured that they are working assiduously on the case after receiving stern criticism from the public over their lackadaisical attitude towards the cases since the story broke.

A Nigerian suspect, Samuel Wilson Udoeterg Wills is in police custody. Police say Udoeterg is part of a kidnapping cartel known to have abducted girls in Ghana and Nigeria.

Members of that cartel and Udoeterg Wills, according to police, have already served prison terms in Nigeria for kidnapping some girls there before relocating to Ghana to do same.

Mr Dery assures that every available method is being explored to ensure that the girls are returned to their families.

He said the authorities are also in touch with their Nigerian counterparts for assistance as “it is also a very important axis because Ghana and Nigeria are very much related.

“If you ask a Ghanaian where he will be, apart from Ghana, he would say Nigeria and vice versa because, we are both English speaking [countries] and we have a lot of things in common so it is important that we work together to check criminals.”

H believes that the international approach that has been taken will help them achieve results and “we will work with anybody, even the Chinese [and] whoever and we will collaborate with all friendly countries.

“We believe that the girls are still alive and not beyond our reach,” he added.