There was dead silence in an Accra High Court yesterday when the recorded telephone conversations of persons arraigned for kidnapping two Canadian ladies in Kumasi in 2019 were played.
The call recording gave chilling details of how the suspects planned and executed the kidnapping.
Part of the recorded calls also highlighted how, Sampson Aghalor, the alleged Nigerian mastermind, on some occasions spoke to their victims and demanded access to their credit cards details, Apple ID and passwords as well as their Facebook user name and password.
It also came to light that Sampson Aghalor, had mobile conversations regarding a “job” that was supposed to fetch them GH¢800,000; the same amount they demanded from the victims’ parents as ransom while keeping the ladies captive.
A forensic analysis of the phone calls of a Vivo mobile belonging to him revealed telephone conversations with one Achu, which highlighted on an GH¢800,000 job which he wanted them to execute which each member of the team was entitled to an equal share of GH¢200,000.
Detective Sergeant Sylvester Essel, a Forensic Analyst with the Ghana Police Service, who carried out the examination on some mobile phones confiscated, tendered the recording and a report on the calls to the court
Trial
Sampson Aghalor, 27, computer engineer; Elvis Ojiyorwe, 27, businessman, and Jeff Omarsa, 28, tiler—all Nigerians—and their Ghanaian counterpart, YussifYakubu, 28, are facing three counts of conspiracy, kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment.
The kidnapping of the two ladies sparked public outrage in early June 2019, and a National Security operation led to the dramatic release of the two ladies and subsequent arrests of eight suspects on June 11, 2019.
Four out of the eight persons who were initially arrested in connection with the kidnapping were discharged as the prosecution decided to drop all charges against them after reviewing the investigations.
Crying Victims
A portion of the recorded calls centred on the conversation Aghalor had with one of the victims who was crying throughout her conversation with the accused person.
Aghalor had called one of his accomplices and demanded to speak to one of the victims and when he had her on the phone, he demanded for her Apple ID and password.
The lady went ahead to mention the ID and password and when he tried the password and it did not work, the accused person got furious and raised his voice and asked the lady to stop wasting his time and give him the right password.
The lady repeated the password and after it appeared to have worked, he ordered the lady to hand over the phone to his accomplice who he referred to as “my boy”.
He later called asking the lady how much money she had on her credit cards and then demanded for the pin codes to the cards. When the lady gave it out, he asked if she was sure because he had tried it and it did not work.
He then went ahead to ask for her Facebook user name and the email address used in creating the account as well as the password.
The lady who sounded traumatized and was crying managed to mention it to him and when he missed it, he asked the lady to “start again,” and the lady repeated it while still crying.
GH¢800,000 Job
Earlier, Detective Sergeant Essel, led in his evidence in chief by Winifred Sarpong and Hilda Craig, a Senior State Attorney, the witness told an Accra High Court that Sampson Aghalor also talked about the existence of some “GH¢800,000” in a briefcase which belonged to a white man who lived in Osu, Accra.
Apart from the telephone conversations, Aghalor and Achu also met at the Accra Mall to plan on how to execute their GH¢800,000 job, Detective Essel told the court.
In the telephone conversation, Aghalor was heard discussing the existence of the GH¢800,000 job and when asked by the other party as to the nature of the job, he responded that it was not one that could be discussed on the phone and suggested that they met to talk about it.
The court presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo had adjourned the case to April 15, 2021 for the rest of the recorded calls to be played.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak