A woman who claims to have been kidnapped from Takoradi and held for 10 days, surfaced in Accra on Monday morning with no knowledge of where she was held or her abductors.
Agnes Nunoo,25, a trainee seamstress claimed she was abducted at Ngyeresia, a fishing community near Sekondi by four people when she boarded a taxi on her way to visit her pastor, one Stephen Cudjoe on September 10.
Meanwhile, she had been reported missing by her mother, Doris Nunoo at the Essikado Police Station shortly after her family were unable to trace her whereabouts.
Chief Inspector Ofori of the Essikado Police Station confirmed over the phone that Agnes had indeed been reported missing.
Agnes Nunoo told some bewildered residents of Teshie that she was kidnapped after boarding the taxi which already had four occupants including a lady wearing a police uniform and two men in the backseat.
She said the passengers in the backseat convinced her to sit in between them as one claimed he would be alighting at the next stop.
However, she said no sooner had she sat down than she lost consciousness, and when she came to, she was among about 40 other captives in an uncompleted building.
Agnes said that she managed to escape captivity after racing through the bush on foot with a fellow captive who had a son of about 10 years.
She said after racing for a while, they came to a place where they were told they were in Ashaiman, near Tema. She then called her brother, Benjamin Nunoo who resides at Teshie near Accra, who asked her to locate the lorry station and seek a Teshie-bound vehicle. Benjamin claimed to have spoken with a driver’s mate whom he directed to bring his sister. Upon their arrival, he said he paid for the fare.
Victim’s Ordeal
Agnes told Graphic Online that her captors held her in a room with 40 others which also included men and some children.
She said that they were asked to strip down to their under-garments and blind-folded periodically but she managed to hide her mobile phone in her brassiere.
We were fed once a day, at times rice, at times waakye and other times raw gari but I never ate their food, a visibly shaken Agnes said.
Agnes said she managed to befriend one of the women she was held with as well as one of her captors who was vital to their escape.
She plotted with the lady (whose name she could not recall) not to eat the food so they could escape at night.
I realised that anytime they fed the captured they would go into a deep sleep and the people will take some of them away and never bring them back.
I befriended one of them who alerted me of a date when they would be going for an operation, so we could escape.
On that day after they brought the food to us, we both did not eat and pretended to be asleep and waited for when it was very quiet then we tried to wake the others but they were not waking so we rushed out and saw that we were surrounded by bushes.
As we maneuvered through the bush using the torchlight on my phone, we got to a pit which was filled with headless human bodies and bones but we ran past it till we got to a road and continued walking till we got to a place which the people around said was Asahaiman and I boarded a Teshie car after calling my brother to speak with a mate on the phone. The other woman and her son said they were going to Tema, she narrated.
Ransom demands
The victim’s brother, Benjamin Nunoo, an electrician who lives around the Teshie Ford International School said after he was informed by his parents that his sister was missing in Takoradi, he received a call from the kidnappers who asked him to pay a GH¢200 ransom via mobile money if he wanted to be re-united with his sister again.
Mr Nunoo said the kidnappers had pointed out that Amasaman in the Ga West Municipal district was to be the rendezvous.
He then proceeded to inform the Police at the Kpeshie Divisional Headquarters in Nungua about the development and the ransom demand, however, he alleged that the police refused to investigate the matter because they claimed they lacked jurisdiction.
Police Apathy
Mr Nunoo bemoaned the high level of apathy displayed by the police officers when he later returned to report that he had found his sister.
He said he was surprised that the police were not willing to investigate his sister’s story to establish if it was credible or not or the fate of the other captives.
“For me, I have found my sister but what about the others who are still being held by the people? I am very disappointed”, he lamented.
The Police at the Kpeshie Divisional Headquarters later gave him an extract to report the matter at the Teshie Police Station where after interrogation by Superintendent Peter Yembilla they were advised to proceed to the Essikado Police Station for further investigations.
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