Police grab 10 suspected robbers

The Accra Regional Police Command has arrested 10 people who it describes as hardened criminals behind robberies, shootings and the raping of women in various parts of the city.

The suspects, including a nursing mother who is the wife of one of them and the spiritualist for the gang, were arrested at various locations in Accra and Kasoa through police intelligence.

Three others are said to be on the run and have been declared wanted by the police.

Briefing journalists on a special two-week police operation which led to the arrests, the Accra Regional Police Commander, Mr Frederick Anim, said the apprehension of the suspects must send a warning to criminals “who have plans of engaging in criminal activities this festive period that they cannot ply their illegal operation in Accra”.

Tip off

The suspects comprise members of two separate gangs and one person who was operating alone.

They are being held for attacking mobile money shops and residences and snatching vehicles at gunpoint.

The first gang arrested is made up of six members — Moses Tetteh, alias Kaize, 20, a machine operator; Louis Mawunyor Dzedzom, 37, driver; Kwame Takyi, alias Haruna Owu, 25, driver; Kwabena Otibu, 29, phone repairer; Alhassan Abdulai, 42, spiritualist, and Eunice Dorkenu, 29, Takyi’s wife.

The second gang is made up of three members, comprising Abdul Rahman Ishaq, alias Alhaji; Iddrisu Adul Jalil, alias CID, and Faisal Mohammed Muniru.

The lone ranger was named as Abass Yusif.

First gang

Mr Anim said police investigations established that in the early part of November this year, the leader of the first gang, Tetteh, contacted Takyi and informed him of an intended robbery operation in Dansoman.

Takyi was tasked to procure weapons for the operation and he recruited Otibu from Tema, while Dzedzom was also recruited as the driver for the operation.

Acting on intelligence, he said, the police foiled the operation about 5 p.m. on November 20, 2019 and arrested four of the suspects at Suruga while they were smoking some dried substances suspected to be Indian hemp in preparation for the said operation.

During interrogation, Abdulai was named as the one who performed rituals for the gang before they embarked on their operations and he was arrested.

On Abdulai’s arrest, the police found a pistol, two rounds of ammunition and two empty AK 47 shells in his possession, while Takyi’s wife was arrested after she had handed over a foreign pistol belonging to her husband to a man she only identified as Iddi in her attempt to conceal evidence against her husband.

She later led the police to retrieve five rounds of pistol ammunition wrapped in a rubber bag and buried in the ground at a spot close to their home.

The police also retrieved a foreign pistol loaded with 14 rounds of ammunition, a spare magazine loaded with 11 rounds of ammunition and dried leaves suspected to be Indian Hemp.

The suspects confessed to a series of crimes in Accra, including two robberies at an area near Trassacco where the victims were robbed and raped, as well as robbery of mobile money shops at Atadeka and Zenu, both suburbs of Ashaiman.

Mr Anim said the suspects in the first gang were put before an Accra Circuit Court on November 29, 2019 and were remanded into police custody, while the nursing mother was granted bail.

They are to reappear on December 18.

Second gang

He said members of the second gang were arrested from their hideouts at three different locations, namely, Nsawam in the Eastern Region and Abossey Okai and Glefe, both in the Greater Accra Region.

He told journalists that the suspects were involved in the robbery of mobile money shops in Accra, Ashaiman, Tema and Nsawam, while two of their accomplices, identified only as Dauda and Paul, were on the run.

One of their victims, said to be a money changer, was attacked at Akokofoto at Dansoman, shot in the shoulder and left thigh and robbed of GH¢280,000.One of their modus of operandi was for Jalil to pose as an officer of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service and visit the homes of businessmen.

After introducing himself as such, Mr Anim said, Jalil was allowed entry into the homes and he immediately alerted his gang who would pounce on the victims and rob them.

One such victim was a Chinese who was attacked by the robbers at Weija, near Kasoa, and robbed of an unspecified amount of money.

An unregistered Kia Rio saloon car retrieved from Jalil has been impounded by the police.

Lone ranger

On December 10, 2019, Mr Anim said, the police received a hint and arrested Yusif in his house at Kasoa Oata City. Yusif was on bail in relation to another robbery case.

The police retrieved a pistol, two magazines loaded with eight rounds of ammunition each, 20 spent shells of pistol ammunition and five eight-millimeter live ammunition, one pump action gun with seven live cartridges, three jack knives and a talisman.

An unregistered saloon vehicle suspect to have been snatched from its owner was also retrieved and impounded by the police.