State prosecutors have preferred fresh charges against six persons, including two policemen attached to the Accra Regional Police SWAT Unit, arrested for robbery.
The cops are General Corporal Bismark Ntim aka Striker, 32 and General Lance Corporal Francis Opoku Gyau, 29.
Their alleged civilian accomplices are Michael Adjei Donkor aka Abrefie, 36, driver; Nana Ntim Gyakari aka Nana Okyere, 29, social worker; George Eshun aka Kofi, 29 and Urey Harris Koufi, 32, both businessmen.
The police are also on the heels of the seventh and eighth suspects – Erasmus Adama Nketia aka Alhaji, National Security officer and one Agyekum Ntim Gyakari.
Charges
According to the prosecutor, Superintendent of Police K. Bempah Striker, Gyau, Alhaji and Abrafi on July 15, 2016 at Kaneshie, a suburb of Accra, conspired to rob and robbed one Benjamin Abonyin of his KIA Picanto taxi with registration number GW 7087-15.
Nana Okyere, Kofi and Koufi are each facing additional charge of dishonestly receiving the said KIA Picanto vehicle and other vehicles, knowing that they had been obtained by means of robbery in Accra and Cape Coast.
The court, presided over by Aboagye Tandoh, earlier struck out the previous charge sheet as the prosecution indicated that they intended to substitute the previous one with a fresh one.
Responding to the new charges, the accused persons variously denied them and were remanded into police custody until September 22, 2016.
Dr. Kwaku Nsiah and Andrew K. Vortia, lawyers for the accused persons, prayed for bail.
Dr. Nsiah said his clients had denied the offence and per the 1992 Constitution, they were presumed innocent until proven guilty.
He said there was no difference between the old charges and the new one.
Innocent Buyers
Mr. Vortia, who represented Nana Okyere, Kofi and Koufi, said his clients were “innocent purchasers” of the said vehicles.
He said the accused persons are vehicle dealers known by everybody, including police officers at Cape Coast and that the charges preferred against them were bailable.
The court has therefore adjourned ruling on the bail application until the said date.
By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson
jeffdegraft44@yahoo.com