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18.10.2014 General News

'Criminals' Invade Aflao CEPS? ... Dismissed Officer Back To Service

..... Extorts, Harasses & Intimidates Business Owners
By Prosper Agbenyega
'Criminals' Invade Aflao CEPS? ... Dismissed Officer Back To Service
18.10.2014 LISTEN

The people of Ketu South in the Volta region of the Republic of Ghana, as well as businessmen and women who patronise the Ghana-Togo border are living in a state of fear with the infiltration of some persons they described as 'criminals' into the Aflao post of Customs Excise Preventive Service (CEPS).

Prominent among the officers with questionable characters is Hope Sodzinshie, a notorious former National Security operative and an ex-soldier, who was axed from the Ghana Army over thievery and behaving in a manner that brought the image of the noble profession into disrepute.

Our investigations revealed that, Hope Sodzinshie, after being dismissed from the Ghana military, once worked with CEPS, but was again sacked for conniving with colleague customs official to steal goods seized from one Alhaji, a Kumasi businessman.

According to reports, Hope and his accomplices while on duty one fateful day arrested some goods concealed in a number of cartons from the said Alhaji at a location close to Kumasi, a city in Ghana.

The goods were conveyed to the CEPS headquarters only to realize that it was actually some unspecified amount of Ghana Cedis and US dollars that were concealed in the cartons.

Unfortunately, Hope and his cohorts could not account for the total number of cartons seized from the Alhaji as it emerged that some of the goods went missing. It was later discovered that the disappointed and shameless ex-soldier and his friends stole some of the goods. This also led to his second dismissal from public service together with his accomplices.

Surprisingly however, the same Hope Sodzinshie got recruited into the Ghana National Security for a short while and later reinstated into CEPS under strange circumstances.

To make matters worse, our investigations have revealed that, Hope, since leaving the National Security Service for his new job, has not returned the security gadgets and weapons in his possession.

The ex-soldier is alleged to be aiding and abetting crime in that part of the region: he allegedly distributes guns and other deadly weapons to known criminals at Aflao, one of the busiest border towns in Africa, who go about their nocturnal robbery activities with impunity.

"He was sacked from CEPS. We were surprised to wake up one day and found him around the same offices still harassing businessmen and other passengers. He uses his position to extort money from people," a resident said.

Speaking to some business owners who do business along the Togo-Aflao border, they described Hope Sodzinshie as a “terrorist” who extorts money and intimidates them when going about their business activities.

The aggrieved persons said, on no occasion will passengers and business owners be allowed to conduct clean transactions at the border without paying money to Hope Sodzinshie.

His modus operandi, according to eyewitnesses, has created fear in people, a situation that serves as an obstacle to the progress of thriving businesses in the area, since no steps have been taken by the appropriate authorities to call Hope Sodzinshie to order.

It also came up in our investigations that, Hope, sometimes, gallivants the streets of Aflao in multi-coloured attires, wielding a pistil and threatening to kill people especially, those who reprimand him for misconducting himself as a public officer.

The Aflao CEPS boss, Mr Confidence Klutse, who spoke to the African Newsman, confirmed that Hope Sodzinshie was indeed recalled into the revenue service, but could not tell the circumstances leading to his reinstatement, explaining he had scanty information since he has been serving in that capacity for the past three months.

However, people believe his coming back was politically engineered and therefore call on the Ghana National Security, CEPS, Police and Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) to investigate the allegations and help maintain law and order in the area.

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