[ 2021-03-06 ]

Takoradi kidnapped girls’ accused persons get death penalty
Sekondi, March 5, The two accused standing trial
over the Takoradi kidnapped girls incident have
been sentence to death.

The jury found them guilty of all the eight counts
including, conspiracy to commit murder and
murder.

Justice Richard Adjei Frimpong, a Sekondi High
Court Judge who presided over the trial delivering
the judgement of the court said, "If you murder,
you suffer death".

The High Court Judge earlier read a three hour
summary of all proceedings culminating into why
the two suspects; Samuel Odeutek and John Oji
should suffer death like their victims.

The court said there was enough circumstantial
evidence of various forms and also in the form of
Facebook chats, audio recordings, and their
confessions to each other incriminating them of
the crime of kidnap and subsequent murder of the
girls who went missing between August and December
2018.

Meanwhile, the general court atmosphere was very
calm with a few family members present.

The father of Priscilla Bentum one of the victims
prayed the court not to end with the jail term,
but trace all involved in the syndicate.

The two Nigerians, Samuel Udoetuk Wills and John
Oji, were before the Sekondi High Court in
connection with the kidnapping and subsequent
murder of the four girls in Takoradi.

They pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The court heard 23 witnesses during the trial,
lawyers for the accused persons were asked by the
court to close their defence after trial, of
which, the court set, March 5, 2021 as the
‘judgment’ day.

Prior to the judgement, the Prosecution and the
lawyers for the two Nigerians were asked to make
oral addresses to the Court last Wednesday.

However, the defence lawyers, George Essilfu-Ansah
and Mark Bosia of the Legal Aid representing
Udoetuk Wills and Oji respectively, were not in
court on Wednesday.

The court had to adjourn the trial to Thursday,
March 4, to enable the defence lawyers to file and
give their oral addresses to the court prior to
the judgement, but the two lawyers were again
absent when the case was called, but a new lawyer,
Samuel Agbota representing the second accused was
present.

The trial judge, Justice Richard Adjei-Frimpong
who was visibly not happy about the absence of the
two defence lawyers, then asked the prosecution
led by Chief State Attorney, Patience Klinogo to
give her oral address.

She said the four girls were living with their
individual parents and guardians at various places
in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis.

She said later events indicates that the girls
were all kidnapped and that in each case the
kidnapper called the parents on different days to
inform them that their daughters had been
kidnapped.

She said the kidnappers also demanded various sums
of money from the parents as ransom, which the
parents paid but none of the girls were released.

She said the parents later reported to the Police
and Police intelligence led to the arrest of the
first accused person, Samuel Udoetuk Wills on
December 2, 2018.

The prosecution said upon further investigations,
the first accused mentioned the second accused,
John Oji as his accomplice.

“So on June 4, 2019, John Oji was also arrested
at Aflao”, she said.

She said facebook chats between the two revealed
discussions about killings, blood sacrifice and
killing for money.

The state Attorney said, the second accused
admitted having visited the first accused in
Takoradi in the first week of December 2018 in his
cautioned statement to the police.

She said the second accused told the Police the
first accused took him to an environment which he
was not comfortable with of which Udoetuk told him
that he had killed someone there.

The Chief State Attorney said the disclosure and
other facebook chats between the accused persons
made the police to intensify their search around
the residence of Udoetuk.

She said between 2nd and 6th August, 2019, the
police discovered some skeletal remains in a
septic tank at the residence of the first accused
at Kansaworodo, near Takoradi and also in a well
around an uncompleted building where the first
accused was re-arrested after escaping from lawful
custody.

She said a DNA test was conducted on the remains
and that DNA samples of the relatives of the four
girls were marched to that of the skeletal remains
where it was revealed that the remains were that
of the four missing girls.

She said the assertion by the accused persons that
the statements and admissions they made to the
Police were done under duress, was untrue.

She then prayed the jury and the court to declare
the accused persons guilty as charged.

Mr. Samuel Agbota, the new lawyer who stood in for
Mark Bosia, representing the second accused person
told the court that “We are all traumatized with
the events leading to the kidnapping of the
girls”.

He, however, said the second accused person did
not know anything about the incidents and that
when the first accused was giving his statement to
the police and incriminating the second accused,
John Oji was not there.

He said with regards to the facebook chats, he
argued that there was no expert to authenticate
and that it could be some conversations between
some other persons.

Samuel Udoetuk Wills and John Oji, both Nigerians,
were standing trial in connection with the missing
girls which has generated some heated public
debate over the past three years.

The kidnapped girls; Ruth Quayson, Priscilla
Blessing Bentum, Priscilla Koranchie and Ruth
Abekah—were believed to have been kidnapped
between August 2018 and January 2019.

Source - GNA

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