The Ghana Police Service is working closely with the Nigerian authorities to repatriate two female kidnapping victims, along with the suspects involved in the case, back to Ghana.

The Police Service, National Signals Bureau (NSB), and Nigeria Police Force, in a joint operation rescued two victims—who had appeared in a widely circulated and disturbing video.

Authorities in Ghana and Nigeria have arrested eight suspects connected to the recent kidnapping case. The suspects were apprehended from various hideouts across Ghana and Nigeria, after a seamless collaboration between law enforcement teams enabled the successful tracking and capture of the perpetrators.

Speaking to the media in Accra on Tuesday, May 7, DCOP Lydia Yaako Donkor, Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), confirmed that arrangements were underway to ensure the safe transfer of both the rescued victims and the arrested suspects to Ghana.

“As of today, both suspects and victims are with the Nigerian authorities, and efforts are being made to transport the victims to Ghana and also extradite the suspects to Ghana to assist investigations,” she stated.

According to police investigations, the victims were lured through an online romance scam and subsequently abducted in Nigeria. Though they traveled separately, both victims arrived at the same location on April 22, where they were kidnapped by Peter Okoye and two accomplices.

“The suspects met the two victims through their Facebook accounts, posed as white men who wanted to marry them, and convinced them to accept the marriage proposal,” the Police said

DCOP Donkor revealed that the families of the victims had paid a total of GHS18,000 to various phone numbers as part of ransom demands.

However, she assured the public that the victims are currently in stable condition. “Information received from our counterparts in Nigeria indicates that both victims are fine. They have received routine medical checks,” she added.