3 Police Officers Busted

THREE POLICEMEN, including a senior police officer, are cooling off in the cells of the Tema regional police command for their alleged involvement in a robbery incident.

The police officers were apprehended when escorting an armed robbery syndicate which broke into a warehouse at the Heavy Industrial Area in Tema and made away with an articulator truck loaded with some bags of rice.

Sources close to the warehouse and the Tema police told DAILY GUIDE that the armed robbers, who specialised in breaking into warehouses to steal bags of rice, broke into the warehouse at gun point and loaded an articulator truck with bags of rice last Saturday at midnight.

The robbers, after loading the vehicle with the rice, allegedly liaised with a team of police officers who happened to be their cohorts to escort them to a destination in Accra.

The officers were said to have charged an amount of GH¢160, 000 but the armed robbers negotiated the fee to GH¢120, 000. An initial payment of GH¢6,000 was to be made at the warehouse whilst the remaining amount was to be paid when they arrived at their destination.

After waiting for a while without the police showing up, the robbers in an attempt to re-establish contact with them, mistakenly dialled a different policeman's line, who without wasting time informed a patrol team. The team reportedly laid ambush at Kpone in the Kpone-Katamanso District of Accra.

The three police officers with whom the robbers had made the original arrangement reportedly arrived at the warehouse shortly afterwards and began to escort the robbers to Accra after collecting the agreed part payment of GH¢6, 000.

The patrol team, which had laid ambush on the way, intercepted the truck but the police officers managed to escape.

The robbers were reportedly arrested and the truck was impounded.

Investigations by the Tema regional police command, where the robbers were sent to, allegedly led to the arrest of the policemen, including a senior officer. The vehicle used for the criminal act was reportedly retrieved from them as well.

Several attempts to reach the Tema regional police command to confirm this proved futile.

In a similar case recently, a policeman, Corporal Kyei Mensah, of the Tema Community Two Police Station, and four others were arrested for allegedly breaking into a warehouse in Tema.

The police mounted a search for another police officer, identified as Corporal Hope Katsekpor, also of the same police station, who was said to be on the run by then.

The four other suspects, Jahlu Yahaya, 25; Ibrahim Bawa, 20; Godwin Atanu and Stephen Akwasi Djan, both 25, were also held.

The suspects reportedly stormed the warehouse of Samphods Ventures, near Aluworks in Tema, at about 3am and broke into the warehouse after they had attacked and assaulted the security man, Henry Nortey.

The suspects packed about 2,000 bags of imported rice into two Man-Diesel trucks with registration numbers GT 5985 R and VR 6477 H. The trucks were driven by Yahaya and Ibrahim, respectively, whilst the two policemen provided security for them.

Whilst the suspects were in the process of carting their booty, they were accosted by a police patrol team which went to the area following a tip-off from the Police Information Unit.

The two policemen (Kyei and Katsekpor), who were providing security for the suspects, were reported to have taken to their heels, leaving behind a Nissan Patrol vehicle with registration number GT 8890 G.

From Vincent Kubi, Tema