THE ASHANTI Regional Police Command has arrested two people and are on the heels of two other suspects in connection with the killing of Senegalese goalkeeper, Cheikh Toure.
The suspects are Salifu Walid, 32, a Nigerien national, and Aziz Wadrago Mane, 24, a Burkinabe national. They were arrested at Banpanase near Mamponteng, in the Ashanti Region, barely one-year after committing the heinous crime.
The police have also intensified their search for suspects Barry and Noukoubri Arzouma Sylviain, alias ‘Prince Pierre’, who is suspected to have played a central role in the kidnapping and murder of Toure in the suspected cross-border operation.
The suspects and their accomplices are said to operate under the guise of football scouting agents, using online platforms and networking to lure unsuspecting victims into the country under the pretext of offering football-related opportunities.
According to the police, the two nabbed suspects and their accomplices used the same strategy to lure Toure into the country and they (suspects) kidnapped him and eventually ended his life.
“Preliminary investigations indicate that the two suspects are members of a four-man group allegedly involved in the kidnapping and murder of the deceased,” Superintendent Godwin Ahianyo of the Ashanti Regional Police Public Affairs Unit, disclosed.
In a press statement, he said, “The Ashanti Regional Police Command has arrested two key suspects in connection with the kidnap and murder of Senegalese national and goalkeeper, Cheikh Toure, in October 2025.”
Narrating the genesis of the story, he said, “On October 16, 2025, the body of Cheikh Toure was brought to and abandoned at the Manhyia District Government Hospital by three unidentified men believed to be foreign nationals.
“The circumstances surrounding his death led to investigations by the Ghana Police Service to establish the identity of the perpetrators and the motive for the crime.”
He said the suspects managed to evade arrest for close to eleven months, but the police never gave up as they worked assiduously and apprehended two of the suspects, who admitted their guilt and mentioned names of their runaway accomplices.
“Following sustained intelligence-led investigations, a team from the Anti-Armed Robbery Unit (AARU) of the Police Headquarters, in collaboration with the Police Intelligence Directorate (PID), Ashanti Region, on September 20, 2026, arrested two suspects at their hideout at Banpanase, near Mamponteng, in the Ashanti Region.”
During interrogation, he stated, the two suspects allegedly admitted their involvement in the crime and disclosed their respective roles in luring the deceased into the country, adding that police have intensified manhunt for all those connected to the crime.
“The two arrested suspects are currently in police custody and will be processed before the court as investigations continue,” Superintendent Ahianyo added.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah, Kumasi