Cop In Highway Robbery

A policeman detailed for bank guard duties in the Tarkwa municipality of the Western Region who abandoned his post and rather connived with three civilians to allegedly rob an Indian businessman of 23.4kgs of gold bars worth $600,000 has been placed in police custody.

The four succeeded in executing the highway robbery after they had sprayed hot pepper into the eyes of the victim and assaulted his driver.

After the act, which occurred about 5:30 a.m. last Saturday, June 20, the four men bolted in a waiting taxi cab which later plunged into a ditch. But they still managed to escape with the booty, a mobile phone and a pistol belonging to the businessman.

However, General Lance Corporal Frank Addo, the policeman, and Karim Osumanu, the driver of the taxi cab, with registration number GR 6147 T, which was used in the act have been arrested and placed in police custody in Sekondi, while the others are currently at large.

Addo and his accomplices were said to have monitored the movement of the businessman and later mounted an unauthorised road check on the Bonsaso highway, near the defunct Bonsa Tyre Company, where the policeman stopped the businessman’s vehicle for a routine check.

The businessman, Mr Ashok Kothari, told the police that he had not suspected anything criminal, since it was a policeman who had stopped him.

He said the policeman walked to his (Kothari’s) side of the vehicle and ordered the driver to open the back door. But before the driver could open the door; the policeman kicked him (driver) in the abdomen and punched his face, which sent the driver reeling onto the ground.

The Indian businessman said before he could go to the aid of his driver, the four sprayed his eyes with pepper and started to struggle with him over his bag.

He said he was overpowered after the handle of his bag was detached from the bag and the robbers ran into a waiting taxi with the gold bars and sped off.

The businessman said he managed to clean the pepper and chased them until they branched off the highway onto a feeder road, leading to one of the villages.

“I managed to ram into the rear of the taxi, pushing it into a ditch, but before we could get to where the taxi landed, they had emptied the bag and escaped with the gold,” he said.

The policeman later went to his room and called one of his colleagues and confided in him that he had gone on an operation and so if his superiors asked about his whereabouts, he (the friend) should inform the station commander that they had gone out together.

Police sources said Addo was detailed for bank guard duties at 7 a.m. that Saturday and was dressed in the camouflage uniform but because of the struggle and the subsequent escape through the bush, he was so unkempt that he had to go back home to change into the black police uniform before reporting for work.

He was later identified and arrested, together with the taxi driver, and the two are currently helping the Western Regional Police CID in their investigations and the search for his other accomplices.