#BringRhodaBack: Campaign to find missing Lands Commission staffer gathers momentum

Friends and colleagues of a female staffer at the Kumasi office of the Lands Commission have made a desperate plea for help finding the mother of three who has gone missing for close to four months.

Police investigations into the disappearance of Rhodaline Amoah Darko, 32, on August 30, led to the arrest of her husband, Dr Wilberforce Aggrey, a lecturer with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology – where the couple live.

Already banners have been flagged at vantage points in parts of the Ashanti Regional capital as part of the campaign to find Rhoda, as she is affectionately called. A campaign dubbed,#BringRhodaBack has also started on almost all social media handles. It is spearheaded by the Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIS), a group of professionals which recognizes the victim as a member.

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‘Rhoda is a colleague and a friend. She is a professional member of the Institution. And so when the news broke that we could not find her, we all got worried’, a colleague with the GhIS said, when the victim’s husband was denied bail by a High Court in Kumasi on Tuesday. “All we need from the court is justice”.

“We want Rhoda back. Dead or alive”, she said.

Fresh evidence

A State Attorney handling the case told a Kumasi High Court about the emerging evidence after the lecturer, Dr. Wilberforce Aggrey was denied a bail application.

Counsel for Dr. Aggrey filed the bail application after the Asokwa District Court earlier denied him bail and remanded the accused person to reappear on November 26, 2021.

They argued the continued detention of the lecturer is against his fundamental human rights, adding that his offence is bailable.

The accused person is facing charges of kidnapping Rhodaline. According to Defence counsel, led by Frederick Kankam, their client was ready to deposit his passport at the court and submit himself to every order as the court may deem fit by his bail condition.

But the State Attorney prayed the court to deny the accused bail because new facts directly linking him to the disappearance of her wife have emerged.

According to her, Police investigators have been interrogating three witnesses, and granting bail to the accused may interfere with investigations.

The High Court, presided by Priscilla Dikro, denied the accused bail.

She acknowledged that every charge can be bailed and the continuous detention of the accused is against his fundamental human rights.

The court, however, deems the emergence of new facts, as explained by the State Attorney, may interfere with the facts of the case. 

We’re cooperating with police

Ashanti Regional Lands Officer, Stephen Oduro-Kwarteng, told JoyNews, the office has been cooperating with Police and the National Investigations Bureau.

According to him, some officials at the Commission have already given their statements to the investigative bodies.

“Since she is a staff at our outfit, we’ve given the Police and the NIB the needed support from the word-go. Initially, the Police came to our office; we wrote a statement and then I called on my other colleagues to also do the same. We did and submitted it to the Police and then NIB officials from Accra also came and then we did the same when they interrogated us.

“And I think based on the evidence and the statement that we submitted, have led to what we are seeing today,” says Mr. Oduro-Kwarteng said.

SOURCE: DAILY MAIL MONITORING