A 53-year-old security man at the Madina branch of the Melcom Group of Companies was caught up in the milieu of an early dawn robbery on the company’s premises yesterday.
The deceased, Emmanuel Torso, an ex-soldier who worked with the Omega Five Security Company, was found dead in a pool of blood, while the main entrance to the company was said to have been forced open and a cutter used to break open the burglar proof before the robbers gained access to the shop.
The robbers were said to have made away with an unspecified number of mobile phones, digital cameras and flat screen television sets.
Chaotic scene
It was a chaotic scene early this morning at the shop on the Madina Market-Presec Staff Basic School Road when the Daily Graphic got there as curious passers-by and street hawkers thronged the robbery scene.
Police officers who responded to the distress call cordoned the area off to prevent people from tampering with evidence.
When the Daily Graphic got to the scene, the remains of Mr Torso had been sent to the Police Hospital Mortuary, and the pool of blood in which he had lain was covered with cardboards and rags.
The situation resulted in the worsening of the already bad vehicular traffic on that road, as pedestrians and vehicles struggled for space.
Distress call
Speaking in an interview, the Security Coordinator of the Melcom Group of Companies, Mr Abel Adaletey, said at 2.08 a.m. this morning, he had a call from the Madina Branch Manager of the Melcom Group, Mr Innocent Morny, about the incident.
He immediately contacted the police and some of his security officers who responded immediately to the call, “and in no time, they were here and succeeded in cordoning the area off until this morning when the body was taken to the Police Hospital Mortuary.”
Security check
Mr Morny, who stays on the upper floor of the shop, said he was woken up by the security alarm and rang the Security Coordinator, who in turn, also alerted the police but he could not specify the items and their quantities that had been taken away until an inventory was carried out.
Team of police officials
The Deputy Greater Accra Regional Commander of the Ghana Police Service, Mr Timothy Y. Bonga, who also visited the crime scene, said “we are here to get first-hand information in order to put our heads together to see whether we will make a headway”.
He added that he was there with a team from the region and national headquarters, comprising officers from the Homicide and Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to ascertain how they could track the perpetrators.
Security-conscious
Mr Bonga advised Ghanaians to be security-conscious and also make use of the police emergency numbers, which he gave as 18555 and 0302773906, stressing that those numbers operated on a 24-hour service.
“We should also try to have the contact numbers of our local police so that in case of anything, we can contact them,” he advised, explaining that the prompt response of the police to the distress call made the robbers not to be able to do what they wanted to.
He added that the Christmas season often came with increased criminal activities where “people want to reap where they did not sow to enjoy the season and that is why we are stressing that we should all be security-conscious”.
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