The suspects on bail
An Accra High Court has granted a total of GH¢800,000 bail to four out of the eight persons arrested for their involvement in the kidnapping of two Canadian ladies in Kumasi last month.
Those granted bail were Seidu Abubakari, aka Mba, who was initially rumoured to be the ringleader of the group, Abdul Nasir, Safianu Abubakari and Abdul Rahman Suleiman, aka Wofa, whose rented vehicle was used in the kidnap operation.
The other accused persons including Sampson Aghalor, aka Romeo, thought to be the ringleader from Nigeria, Elvis Ojiyorwe, Jeff Omarsar and Yusif Yakubu are still in custody.
The ‘lucky’ suspects were granted GH¢200,000 bail each, with two sureties to be justified. They were further ordered to report themselves to the Kumasi Central Police every Monday.
The remaining four were to be sent back to the custody of the Bureau of National Investment (BNI) and returned to court on August 12.
Bail Applications
Moving the application for bail, Andrew Vortia, counsel for both Seidu Abubakari and Abdul Nasir, told the court, presided over by Justice George Buadi, that the facts of the case only stated that his clients were mentioned by other accused persons as having taken part in the kidnapping but nothing connected them to the crime.
“Looking at the fact sheet, roles were assigned to all the accused persons but no roles were assigned to my clients and I am of a strong conviction that my clients did not take part in the kidnapping,” the lawyer insisted.
Edna Ivy Adabayeri, who represented Safianu Abubakari, also assured the court that her client would avail himself for trial and prayed the court to admit him to bail pending trial.
Joseph Yankson, who represented Abdul Rahman Suleiman, also prayed the court to grant his client bail pending trial.
The state represented by Hilda Craig, a Senior State Attorney, did not oppose the applications for bail but urged the court to set conditions that would ensure that the accused persons would avail themselves for the trial.
Arrest
An all-Ghanaian security operation led by the National Security on June 12 rescued the two Canadian ladies who were abducted from the gates of their hostel in a Kumasi suburb last month.
They are said to have kidnapped their victims and kept them in an uncompleted building on the outskirts of a town, and demanded a ransom of $800,000.
The two ladies had boarded an Uber to their hostel at Nhyiaeso behind the Vienna Hotel, but were accosted by the accused persons when they arrived at their destination and alighted from the car.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak