{"id":2234,"date":"2019-01-24T09:47:06","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T09:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aptnewsghana.com\/?p=2234"},"modified":"2019-01-24T09:47:13","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T09:47:13","slug":"bring-back-our-taadi-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aptnewsghana.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/24\/bring-back-our-taadi-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"Bring back our Taadi girls!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cDad!\n Dad! Dad!\u201d she shouted repeatedly. A father gets a distress call from \nhis daughter. She is agitated. Her father is worried and scared for his child. The phone suddenly goes dead. She has been kidnapped. That was in August 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is one of a growing number of teenagers and young Ghanaian women to have been kidnapped in Ghana\u2019s Western Region<\/a> of Takoradi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three\n girls have been named: they are 18-year-old Priscilla Mantebea \nKoranchie, 18-year-old Ruth Love Quayson and 21-year-old Priscilla \nBlessing Bentum. The police say three girls have been kidnapped, \nTakoradi residents say it is seven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n disappearances span five months, from August 2018 to the very latest in\n January 2019. Takoradi, affectionately called \u2018Taadi\u2019, is in the \nWestern Region of Ghana. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The growing concern and parents desperate cries for help have ignited media headlines and the hashtag #BringBackOurTaadiGirls.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\n is also a call to Ghana\u2019s police to elevate and prioritise these \nkidnapping cases with impactful, urgent policing and investigation and \nreturn the young women who are daughters, sisters, friends and students \nwith loved ones, dreams and futures to their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bring Back Our Girls hashtag ignites memories of the Chibok girls<\/a> of Nigeria. In April 2014, more than 200 girls aged between 16 and 18 were kidnapped and removed from their Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, Nigeria. Their disappearance and the lack of urgency and priority they were given by some in the Nigerian government and law enforcement ignited anger. Parents made multiple appeals for the return of their girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story reached activists and NGOs and the hashtag\n #BringBackOurGirls appeared across social media. It led to high profile\n celebrities, including America\u2019s Former First Lady Michelle Obama, \npictured holding a board with the hashtag, in a bid to keep the issue in the public domain and force a continued focus on finding them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the Chibok girls<\/a>, so many were kidnapped from one place at one time and there were utter failures by the authorities to sound a national alarm and for the rest of the Continent to respond with equal rage and deploy tools to search and retrieve the girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These\n kidnaps in Takoradi, like those in Nigeria, speak more deeply of \nsocieties that do not value their girls; and are slow to respond and \nreluctant to raise national and global alarms when they disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\n is symptomatic of societal norms that trivialize and minimalize the \nwelfare of girls and therefore lose valuable time and do not pay careful\n enough attention in chasing leads, doing diligent police work, treating\n their disappearance as urgent and ultimately recovering young women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here in Ghana, anger and desperation have turned into protest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Relatives\n of the families and Takoradi residents hit the streets chanting, \nholding placards and calling on the police to do more, a government to \nengage the issue and the media to continue to highlight the girls\u2019 \ndisappearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parents\n have since made moving, tearful appeals for information about the \ngirls. WhatsApp messages with flyers featuring images, names and the \nages of the girls are being shared as the public engages in a growing \ncall for action to find the missing girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\n we do know is that a Nigerian man, Samuel Udoetuk-Wills was arrested in\n connection with the kidnappings. Clothes from one of the kidnapped \ngirls were found in his hideaway \u2013 but no girls have been recovered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The police claim they have got little co-operation from their suspect<\/a>; this is despite the clothing that was found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\n has been critique that police \u2013 often accused of being inadequately \ntrained and failing to treat issues of violence against young women with\n suitable seriousness \u2013 failed to act swiftly, failed to be proactive, \nfailed to engage the support of the public and failed to use the medium \nof Ghana\u2019s media to issue calls of help, engagement and support from the\n public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unsurprisingly, the police argue such critique is unfair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\n if we connect these kidnappings to other cases of violence against \nwomen in Ghana and an ongoing history with consistent reports of poor \ntreatment by some police, failure to take reports seriously and act \nurgently; what emerges is a picture of inaction that leads to culprits \nescaping and victims and families left to pick up the pieces of lives \nforever impacted by such violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a picture that is connected to wider society\u2019s response to girls, women and violence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 And it is one that demands our attention and our action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BRING BACK OUR TAADI GIRLS!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The author, Esther Armah, is an award-winning international journalist who has worked in London, New York and across Africa, a radio host, journalism lecturer, multi-media practitioner and playwright.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

credit: myjoyonline.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cDad! Dad! Dad!\u201d she shouted repeatedly. A father gets a distress call from his daughter. She is agitated. Her father is worried and scared for his […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[451],"class_list":["post-2234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-from-ghana-western-region","tag-bringbackourtaadigirls"],"yoast_head":"\nBring back our Taadi girls! - Apt News Ghana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The disappearances from Aug 2018 to the very latest in Jan 2019. 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