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General News of Thursday, 16 May 2019

Source: starrfm.com.gh

Missing Takoradi girls may be dead – Attafuah

Criminologist Prof. Ken Attafuah says he suspects the three kidnapped Takoradi girls may be dead or trafficked outside Ghana.

According to him, there’s no reasonable basis to believe that the girls are still alive or in the country.

Speaking on Starr Chat Wednesday Prof Attafuah who is also the CEO of the National Identification Authority (NIA) observed that “as a criminologist, and as a professional investigator I thought that there was and I pray to God that I’m wrong…but I thought that there was misplaced energy and focus.”

He said: “If indeed, we have kidnapping on our hands…there’s no reasonable basis to believe that those victims of the kidnappings are still in Ghana or still alive. If they are alive, there’s very little that gives me a basis to believe that they are alive in Ghana. If they are not alive sorry. That’s just awful.”

“But I would like to think that they are alive, I would like to think that they are not in Ghana, I would like to think that the Police has not…not that I would like to think, I have sneaky suspicion or feeling that the police has not had a handle on this matter,” he added.

Prof Attafuah’s comments come on the back of intensified calls for the beleaguered Director General of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service COP Maame Tiwaa Addo Danquah to be sacked.

The calls for COP Addo Danquah’s sacking come after her U-turn, suggesting that her claim that the CID knew the whereabouts of the three missing Takoradi girls had been misinterpreted.

“I made that comment because I wanted to give hope to the mothers but I have been misconstrued. Maybe people didn’t understand me. For timelines, I cannot say.

“I just want to assure everyone that the search is still on. We are not sleeping at all,” COP Addo Danquah told Accra-based Atinka TV marking a sharp contrast from her “we know where the girls are” position in April.