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Two of the suspects

Our statements were taken under duress. Koala robbers’ accomplices claim

Two persons alleged to be accomplices of the gang involved in the Koala robbery incident last Monday told the Accra Circuit Court that their statements were taken under duress.

Gilbert Osabutey, a Supervisor at Koala Shopping Centre, and Michael Edor Ahiataku, a private security man, informed the court that they were brutalised by the police and forced to give statements which sought to incriminate them.

Their testimonies were part of a mini-trial conducted by the court to ascertain whether their statements were taken under duress or not.

It comes on the wake of an objection by their legal team to tender their statements claiming that the two were assaulted and coerced by the police to give the statements.

Their counsel, Mr George Asamaney, argued that the two were beaten severely by the police and in the case of Ahiataku, he was tortured and forced to append his signature to his statement.

The prosecutor, Chief Superintendent of Police, Mr Duuti Tuaruka, however, disagreed with counsel’s argument and contended that the accused persons gave their statements voluntarily and witnessed by independent witnesses who read the statements to them.

Osabutey and Ahiataku, together with someone whose name was given as Kwame and two others, now at large, are alleged to have hatched a plan to rob the shopping centre and recruited Stanley Obaliko and Okoe Quarcoo, the two men indicted to have actually committed the alleged offence.

“We were beaten’’

During their testimonies, the two told the court that they were not given the opportunity to give their own statements and further claimed that the statements were never read to them as required by law.

Ahiataku in particular said he was subjected to severe beatings whenever he answered any question in the negative.

“Because of the brutality, any question that I was asked, I answered in the affirmative,’’ he said.

Osabutey claimed that he also suffered the same fate.

“They told me that they want to ask me certain questions, so I should try and speak the truth. Before being asked the questions, I was given dirty slaps,’’ he alleged.

Blood stains

Osabutey further claimed that he got injured as a result of the beatings, a situation which resulted in the statement being stained with blood.

The prosecutor refuted his assertion and told the court the stain on the statement was coffee and not blood.

According to him, the investigator stained the statement with coffee in a rush to answer a call by his supervisor.

The court, presided over by Mr Aboagye Tandoh, adjourned the case to May 23, 2016.

Background

The facts of the case are that on January 9, at about 8a.m., the complainant, Lydia Horsu, went to the Koala Shopping branch at Cantonments, but she decided to pick the company’s invoices and voucher to audit them and left for the head office at the Airport.

On seeing the complainant leave the office, Osabutey alerted the accused persons through a phone call and Obaliko and Quarcoe boarded a BMW motorbike and trailed the complainant to the American Embassy area at Cantonments.

The prosecution said Obaliko, who was then the pillion rider, alighted, drew out a pistol and pointed it at the complainant and ordered her to surrender her handbag.

Chief Supt. Tuaruka said Ms Horsu refused to comply and raised an alarm.

He said this infuriated Obaliko who pushed the complainant down and shot her twice in her thigh and calf, after which he (Obaliko) and Quarcoe sped off.

A taxi driver, who witnessed the incident, chased them with his vehicle and hit their motorbike.

Police investigations led to the arrest of the rest of the accused persons.

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