In the wee hours of August 3, news on the Takoradi girls who have been missing to close to a year now spread across social media and the crawls of TV screens.
The breaking news was that suspected decomposing remains of the three girls (now four) kidnapped were found at the backyard of a Nigerian house in Takoradi.
The police say the body parts will be taken to the forensic lab for confirmation. But even before the results will be out, many have concluded they are the fossils of the girls. If the results prove negative, the discovery will be too coincidental for the emotional mind to bare as true.
Ghana has since been left horrified. Families and persons have engaged in emotional conversations about what the victim’s parents may be going through, for which they have lamented the police should have waited to run the test before speaking to the media; those calling for the heads of public officers in the police, have also blasted their briefs on social media.
For once we can all agree our country is not becoming any safer.
Women and girls in Nigeria have been suffering a worse form of this recent tragedy in Ghana for the past 5 years. Mass kidnapping in the country began in 2014 when about 276 students were kidnapped from the Government Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria.
The notorious Boko Haram is reported to have taken responsibility of this tragedy. Between 20,000 to 45,000 girls and women were initially supplied to sex trade in neighboring Mali.
These women and children were lured and kidnapped.After this trap, these ladies are kept in thick forest with very little or no landmark to aid the girls to escape. According to report, some have managed to escaped, and others rescued after solitary confinement and all manner of abuse early this year.
These survivals attest the rest of the girls are in there. It is speculated that these girls will be used as pawns in exchange of some of Boko Haram’s commanders in jail.
In Ghana, the only difference in the sequence of happening is that firstly no one has claimed responsibility of the mass abduction aside the arrests which have been made in link to the abduction.
Secondly, it is the remains that have been discovered by the police after months of investigations. I am convinced by the use of the word “decomposing” these cases of possible murder despite the fact that it is not yet established were committed weeks or months ago.
Unfortunately, some cynics have played politics with the act apportioning blames. Our institutions like the police in my view has also not done justice to the issue.
Is Takoradi too big for its operations to be that difficult to discover the operations of these “Boko Haram” suspect? What also happened to the spirit of communalism among the youth of the area to commensurate the actions of the police in the search for the girls.
It goes without saying that not only has Ghanaians lost trust in the vigilance of some of our police commands and divisions, but also the spirit of the youth to protect their communities from invaders has become a lost tradition?
Or has the police taken on an all-knowing and sufficient approach to clamping down crime without recourse to some of these community groups to aid in the process.
To say the least Ghana has become unsafe for our women and girls like in close neighboring countries. The lapses in our security and intelligence services may be a factor;but the synergy between the public and the police to foiling crime is another as well as the indifference among the community youth and neighbors could surely be one other issue to tackle, should Ghana win the fight against the recent hijacks and crimes.
