The Circuit in Accra presided over by Her Honour Mrs Rosemond Baah Torsu has remanded five police officers who are alleged to have extorted an amount of GHc20, 000 from a student at East Legon to police custody.
The five accused persons – Cpl Redeemer Agama, General Constables Wishwell Odoo, Evans Amwagsi, Lawat Agyapong and Sean Kuvordo have been charged for three offences.
They have been charged with conspiracy to rob, robbery and conspiracy to giving bribe to influence public officer contrary to Sections 23 (1) and 252(1) of Criminal Offences Act 1960 (Act29).
But, they all pleaded not guilty to all charges.
They were remanded into custody for two weeks after the prosecution had informed the court that, the police had not completed investigations and needed time.
The Prosecutor in the case is ASP Kesse while the accused persons were represented by Lawyer Yaw Danquah and Lawyer Andrew Kudzo Vortia.
They are to reappear in court on June 9, 2021.
Brief facts
The brief facts of the case as presented to the court by the prosecution were that the complainant in the case Jeffery Mackcon Yeboah is a student and businessman while the accused persons are serving police officers attached to the Rapid Department Force-RDF at the National Police Headquarters in Accra and they usually perform vehicular patrol duties.
The prosecution, on May 24, at about 0200 hours, the complainant was on board an Uber taxi around UPSA area when the accused persons who were in Operation Calm Life police service vehicle with arms meant for night patrol duties stopped him and forcibly removed him from the Uber taxi into the police patrol vehicle.
According to the prosecution, the accused persons falsely accused the victim of having been involved in fraud.
The prosecution said, they threatened the victim with harm and asked him to hand over to them every penny on him and further seized the victim’s phone when he was in the police vehicle with them as they drove with him, from Madina to Awudome Cemetery at Kaneshie at night.
According to the prosecution, they threatened to harm the victim should he fail to hand over to them cash of GHc20,000.
He said, they threatened the victim with harm at gunpoint and asked him to transfer cash from his bank account through the online banking system into his mobile money account.
The prosecutor said the accused persons continued to hold the victim hostage in the police patrol to Kwame Nkrumah Circle where they met another accomplice of theirs who was in a civil dress.
He told the court that, their accomplice joined them in the police patrol vehicle and they ordered the victim to transfer cash of GHc20,000 from his Ecobank Account.
Having robbed the victim of his money, the accused persons deleted the transaction records on his phone, sent him to the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange and called on a taxi driver where they forced him into it and asked the driver to drive on without looking back.
GHc2,200 bribe
He said, a report was made to the police at the Kaneshie District and the police investigation led to the arrest of the five serving police officers and cash exhibit of the GHc20, 000 retrieved from them.
According to him, after the arrest of the accused persons, they bribed the investigator with cash sum of ghc2, 500 to cover them up in the case and the same was retained as an exhibit.
The prosecutor informed the court that, an itemized bill has been sent to Abeka District Court for disclosures and efforts are being made to arrest their civilian accomplice whose mobile money account was used in the facilitation of the crime.
Meanwhile, investigations are still ongoing.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/Murtala Inusah
