Hundreds of women from different groups across the country will soon petition the diplomatic community in Ghana over cases of kidnappings in the country.

The women led by the National Women’s Organiser of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Hanna Louisa Bissiw, are worried about how the security agencies, particularly the Criminal Investigative Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service are handling the matter.

Speaking on Inside Politics on Power 97.9 FM, Dr Bissiw disclosed that her outfit had taken hundreds of signatures from women in different parts of the country to buttress their cause.

“See the documents here,” she said while lifting an envelope of documents. “They are documents bearing the signatures of Ghanaian women who have signed our petition. They signed when I went to the north [Northern Region]These women are not happy about the kidnapping syndicate in the country. They are not happy about how the police [and the CID] are handling matter relating to the kidnapping of three ladies in Takoradi.”

“They are killing journalists and our president looks on

She said they were preparing to petition some Ambassadors and High Commissioners in the country as well as the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) as a way to get the government to find the abductees.

“We will go to the Canadian Embassy, U.S Embassy, Australia Embassy, and the Japanese Embassy,” the NDC women’s leader told host Mugabe Maase.

She said the petition was not only to get the government to find the missing ladies but to find the killers of Tiger Eye P.I investigative journalist Ahmed Suale who was murdered at Madina earlier this year.

To her, the wife and children of the journalist who was killed after NPP MP, Kennedy Agyapong, called for retribution against him on NET 2 TV, deserve justice.

Background

Three ladies –Priscilla Blessing Bentum, Ruthlove Quayeson and Priscilla Mantsebeah Koranchie – were abducted in August 2018 in Takoradi, the capital of Western Region. The ladies who are all students have since been found despite countless assurances by the CID that they would be found.

The Director-General of the Criminal Investigative Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, COP Maame Tiwaa Addo-Danquah in April announced the police knew where the young ladies were.

“We know where the girls are” COP Addo-Danquah said and urged the families to keep cooperating with the police. A pro-NPP newspaper, Daily Guide, had also published that the abductees had been found and were going through medical screening at a health facility in Accra.

But a few days later the CID Boss in an interview with Atinka TV said she only said that to give hope to the grieving families of the ladies, adding that the police were yet to find the ladies.

“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,” She said in the interview.

She was heavily criticised for making those comments and some Ghanaians even called for her to be fired. They started a campaign #Tiwaamustgo on various social media platforms to force President Akufo-Addo to sack her.

Among the groups that chastised the CID Boss was the women wing of the NDC. At a press conference at the NDC headquarters on May 12 2019 which was addressed by Dr Hanna Bisiw started calling for signatures from Ghanaians to put pressure on the government to find the missin ladies.

She condemned the CID boss for “lying” to Ghanaians and and demanded for “the CID boss, Tiwaa Addo-Danquah to produce the 3 kidnapped Takoradi girls in the next 14 days or resign from office.”