5 police officers arrested for alleged extortion granted bail; 2 still in police custody

The five police officers who were arrested for alleged extortion have been granted bail.

This was disclosed by their lawyer, Andrew Vortia, in an interview on Eyewitness News on Friday, June 11, 2021.

According to him, while three of the officers are out of custody, two are still in custody because they failed to meet the bail conditions.

The five officers in question are; General Constable Wishwell Odoo, General Constable Lawal Agyapong, General Constable Evans Arawassi, General Constable Sena Kuvordo, and Lance Corporal Redeemer Agama.

The Accra Circuit Court 2 had earlier denied bail to the five officers who were arrested after a complaint of alleged extortion was filed against them.

Though the legal team for the policemen made a case for bail, with vehement opposition from the Prosecution, the court in exercising its discretion remanded the five officers into police custody to reappear on June 9.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr. Vortia stated that they were granted bail and given some conditions to meet.

“We repeated our application for bail for those police officers and the prosecution also countered our argument for bail again, but at the end of the day, the trial judge granted the police officers bail in the sum of GHS80,000, three sureties each, two of whom must be public or civil servants earning not less than GHS2,000, and also ordered the prosecution to file any document that they intend to rely on at the trial and serve the defence council three clear dates before the next adjourned date of 13th July, 2021.”

“Currently, three of them are out [of custody] because they were able to fulfil the bail conditions, but two of them are still in custody and have been asked to fulfil the conditions by Tuesday,” he added.

About the alleged extortion

The police in a statement on May 21, 2021, said a report was received at the Kaneshie Police Station to the effect that around 2:00 am, the complainant was onboard an Uber from Madina to Airport, when about five police officers who were armed and onboard an Operation Calm Life Police Vehicle, intercepted the Uber Vehicle at UPSA road.

“The officers accused him of being a fraudster and arrested him, asking the Uber vehicle to go. He reported that the Police Officers forced him to transfer an amount of GHS 20,000 into a Mobile money account and abandoned him to his fate.”

The Police Command further indicated that a similar report was made at the Achimota police station by a complainant who said at 11:23 PM on the same day, he was driving an unregistered Mercedez Benz when he was stopped by three policemen at Hatso, off the Atomic-Madina road.

“According to the complainant, the policemen searched his car, after which he was arrested on grounds of being a cyber fraudster. He was then escorted to Silver Star towers at Airport and forced to withdraw a sum of GHS 20,000 from his ATM for them.”

—citinewsroom