Five members of a robbery gang operating within Amasaman, Sowutoum and Tabora have been arrested by personnel of the Accra Regional Police Command.
The suspects are Stephen Wajah Sakibu, aged 37, Muntari Ibrahim, aged 29, Prince Ayitey Tagoe, Abubakari Sadik Frenchman (a national of Guinea) and Evans Nortey.
Eight of their victims have since identified them as their attackers, according to the police, and are assisting in investigations.
The Accra Regional Police Commander, DCOP Frederick Adu Anim, who briefed the media on the arrest, said two of the robbers, Wajah and Ibrahim, were earlier arrested by Amasaman Police for unlawful possession of firearm and ammunition; and the others during investigations by the regional operations unit.
He said on March 9, 2020, around 11:30pm, the Amasaman patrol team arrested the two suspects while on their routine patrols at Amomorley junction, near Pokuase.
He revealed that the suspects were spotted in a KIA Picanto taxi cab with registration number GE 5475-17 driven by suspect Ibrahim.
“A search conducted on them led to the retrieval of two pistols and other incriminating items,” he said.
DCOP Frederick Adu Anim added that suspects Sakibu and Ibrahim were transferred to the Regional CID/Accra on March 17, 2020 for further investigations.
“The suspects later confessed to committing a series of robberies and mentioned their accomplices as Tagoe, Frenchman and Nortey,” he mentioned.
The Accra Regional Police Commander continued that Tagoe was arrested at Mankrong where five mobile phones and assorted credit cards were retrieved from him.
Suspect Frenchman was arrested at Olebu Estates, where three mobile phones were retrieved from him. Suspect Nortey was arrested at Odumase and a locally manufactured pistol, eight BB cartridges, three AA cartridges, a pair of handcuffs, six mobile phones and assorted credit cards and a car ignition key suspected to be stolen were found on him.
DCOP Adu Anim said when Nortey was interrogated he confessed that the ignition key found belonged to a Toyota Yaris which he and his accomplices snatched from the owner on February 25, 2020 at Israel Lomnava.
He said the vehicle was yet to be retrieved from where it had been parked by the robbers.
“All five suspects gave different accounts of the series of robberies they had committed including the attacks on mobile money vendors in and around Tabora-Alhaji on two separate occasions from where they raked in an amount of GH¢10,000.00 and assorted credit cards from the victim; they also carried out similar attacks on victims at Ablekuma-Fanmilk, Santa Maria, Sowutuom, Olebu, Pokuase station and Amasaman,” he said.
He said further investigations by the police established that the Kia Picanto taxi Cab which Wajah and Ibrahim were driving on the day of arrest was snatched from its owner at Sowutuom Lomnava on February 26, 2020 around 10:00pm at gun point.
The regional commander said the eight victims, who reported at the station to identify the suspects during the identification parade, were all mobile money vendors.
(lindatenyah@gmail.com)
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey