One of the suspects
The Nkawkaw Police Command has arrested a man in the act of cutting a railway track at Asante Praso.
Upon receiving information that some persons were in the act of cutting the lines at Asante Praso, a team from the Command led by ACP/Mr. Kofi Adu, proceeded to the location and found suspect Kwadwo Gyamfi and seven others now at large busily cutting the RBS rails belonging to the Ghana Railway Company Limited with the aid of an LPG cylinder.
Although the team arrested Kwadwo Gyamfi, his seven accomplices managed to escape.
The suspect and the telltale tools, two LPG cylinders, two wheel spanners and a rubber hose were confiscated and taken to the Juaso District Police Headquarters to assist in the ongoing investigation.
The suspect will be put before court when investigations are complete, even as efforts are underway to apprehend his accomplices.
Thieves have in recent times heightened their stealing of railway infrastructure in the Juaso area, appearing to be the epicentre of the negative activities.
The Marine Police Unit of the Ghana Police Service last week, on the same day that the Juaso arrest was made, intercepted a Rhino truck laden with stolen rail sleepers. These were said to have been stolen and sold as scrap at Inchaban in the Shama District of the Western Region.
The suspected owner of the stolen railway infrastructure on board the Rhino truck with registration number WR 2467-18 and the driver who escaped earlier turned up at the scene and were subsequently arrested.
Police found in the truck railway tracks cut into several pieces.
The rehabilitation of the railway system is suffering a major setback at the hands of scrap dealers who cut them up under darkness and hide them in surrounding areas for collection later.
By A.R. Gomda