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Police praised for rescuing 2 Canadian girls


A cross  section of Ghanaians  have commended the Ghana Police  Service  for  rescuing  the two  Canadian girls, Patricia Catherine Tilly and Bailey Jordan Chitty from their abductors  yesterday  but  questioned the silence on the missing Takoradi girls.

According to some Ghanaians, though the rescue was commendable, they were of the view that the police should have placed the same level of seriousness and commitment exhibited   in saving the Takoradi girls.

 Mr. Selorm Mensah, 35 said in the case of the Takoradi girls, the police took issues lightly when reported to them until the third girl got missing and now it is being speculated that these girls are not in the country.

“If the Ghana Police Service had acted swiftly as they did with the case of the Canadian girls, the story of the Takoradi girls would have been different by now,” he said.

Though  he was of the view that the  situations  were  different,  because one  case had to do with  foreigners and the other  Ghanaian nationals, the  police  and other  security  experts in the country  could  have done  better in the  case of the three Takoradi girls.

 Mr Mensah praised the Police for redeeming the image of Ghana in international circles saying that, if the girls had not been rescued by now, the international media would have taken a swipe at Ghana.

 For Komla Agbo, priority was given to the Canadian girls in an attempt to manage the international image of the country.

 He questioned the rationale behind the Inspector General of Police (IGP) David Asante-Apeatu’s visit to Kumasi in an attempt to help find the two missing Canadian girls while he was yet to visit Takoradi to give a word of encouragement to the families of the three missing girls.

“I think the Police and government have given priority to the Canadians over our own nationals and I feel sad about it,” he said.

He called on the Police to put in more effort into finding the Ghanaian girls to erase the perception that the Canadian girls were rescued to save the image of the country.

A journalist with the Ghanaian Times newspaper, Mr John Vigah, said the police had done a good job as the issue of kidnapping was giving the country a bad name in the international community.

“As much as I want to congratulate the security forces, they deserve a lot of plaudits for the good work done but I want to charge them to do everything possible to ensure that the Takoradi girls are rescued and are reunited with their families whom I believe are going through enormous emotional torture these past months,” he said

Mr Agyenim Boateng, a Research Scientist, was of the view that, the rescue of the Canadian girls clearly indicated how the country less regarded its citizens.

A visibly angry mobile money vendor, Elisabeth Ahiadzi, sai, the situation was heart breaking and suggested the killing of the kidnappers while expressing her surprise at the use of tax payers’ money to transport the “criminals” in an aircraft to Accra.

Ms Yayra Mensah, an accountant, said this clearly defined the disrespect of human rights we have in the country, stressing that the laws of the country seemed to only favour the rich whiles the poor always suffer.

“This is just too much just because the parents of these girls don’t have money to help find their children they are always in pain,” she said.

 She asked the Police to ensure that the Takoradi girls were brought back home and re-united with their families as soon as possible.

 Earlier this month  two Canadian  girls who were on an exchange programme with the entrepreneurship department of the Kumasi Technical University  were  kidnapped  in Kumasi and  were rescued at Akorem in Sawaba, a suburb of  Kumasi  by the  Ashanti  Regional Police  Command in  collaboration with other security operatives in the early hours of Wednesday.


BY JEMIMA ESINAM KUATSINU AND ALLIA NOSHIE

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