A leading New Patriotic Party figure in the Takoradi Constituency, Bernard Oduro-Nyarko, has commended Ghanaian media for their timely intervention in the case of the kidnapping in Takoradi.
While commending the media, Mr Oduro-Nyarko also sympathised with parents whose children have fallen victim to the kidnappings.
He used the opportunity to urge the Police to up their game to help bring the faces behind the kidnapping cases to book.
Read his full release below:
PRESS STATEMENT BY BERNARD ODURO-NYARKO ON THE RECENT KIDNAPPING CASES IN SEKONDI-TAKORADI.
28TH JANUARY, 2019
Media,
Thank you for making time to be here for this presser although the notice was short.
I would want to commend you all gathered and those who couldn’t make it for the good working you are doing in helping to shape our nation.
The media in Sekondi-Takoradi has proven once again that you are capable of delivering credible and timely information and you deserve commendation.
Your role so far in the recent kidnapping cases in Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis which has now caught national and even international attention gives further credence to the fact that we have a strong media force pushing the agenda of this region.
I have been following media leads and reports on recent kidnapping cases in this metropolis and I must say that it’s not only shameful but barbaric and very alien and must be condemned by all.
I sympathize with parents whose kids have been kidnapped and pray the Lord will give them strength in these trying times. I am more than convinced that the girls are alive and will be brought back safely.
As a native of this city, when the news broke out of an alleged kidnapping case, I regarded it as one of those social media stunts but when subsequent reports confirmed the incidents, I was taken aback and shocked to the marrow of my bone. This is because, it was too foreign, news to hear in Sekondi-Takoradi.
The Sekondi-Takoradi that we were born into was generally peaceful, full of fun and one could walk about freely with no fear of attack or kidnap but recent stories about this city seem the trend has changed.
The disappearance of the three girls Priscilla Blessing Beentum, a 21 year-old third-year student of University of Education-Winneba, whom according to the Police was captured on August 17, 2018 at Kansawrodo and subsequent abduction of two other girls Ruth Love Quayson who has just completed Fijai Senior High School and Priscilla Mantebea Korankye, a first-year student of Sekondi College in December last year have been a devastating news to me.
Subsequent to these, there are also reports of kidnap and failed kidnapping attempts on other children and even grownups and recent reports of a young boy who was allegedly kidnapped and his dead body found around the monkey hill area in Takoradi has now made life in this metro quite scary because no one knows when these people will strike again and who probably is their next target.
It is sad that these issues are occurring and the reported number of cases are growing each day and reports further suggest these perpetrators are expanding their operation and gradually going region-wide.
I would want to use this opportunity to urge parents to take a keen interest in the whereabouts of their wards at all times and what they do.
The children of this generation are very much in love with technology, which is not bad if used properly but the same medium is also being used to exploit some of them and the Police accounts on these kidnapping cases particularly regarding the three girls confirmed they were all through the mobile phone.
According to the police, there are phone conversations which showed that the alleged kidnapper had acquaintances with the girls before they were eventually captured.
Parents should, therefore, take interest in the kind of phones their children use, who they communicate with, contents of their discussions and even the websites they visit to help stop these ongoing disturbing developments.
I would also urge the Police to up their game to help bring the faces behind these kidnapping cases to book. I have confidence in the Police to do a good job and commend you for the headway you have made in this matter including the arrest of a suspect who is a Nigerian National Sam Udoetuk Wills. I am therefore appealing that they speed up the investigation processes to help not only to arrest other possible members of the syndicate but also bring the girls back.
As residents, we all have a duty to provide not only credible but timely information to the Police to help their work since security is a shared responsibility.
I therefore at this junction join calls that our girls must be brought back.
#BringOurTaadiGirlsBack
Thank you all once again for coming.
Bernard Oduro-Nyarko
Takoradi Constituency
NPP